The night was suffocating. Streetlights cast pale yellow halos over the empty streets, their hum masking the distant sound of cars. Sofia walked briskly, her coat tight around her shoulders. She couldn’t shake the unease crawling up her spine. Every shadow seemed longer, darker, whispering that she was being watched.Her phone buzzed, a message from an unknown number:“Stop walking. Look behind you.”Her heart slammed against her ribs. A laugh escaped her lips, brittle and nervous. A prank? She thought. But instinct screamed otherwise.Before she could react, headlights flared behind her. A black SUV rolled slowly, menacingly, blocking her path. The doors opened, and two men stepped out, faces obscured.“Get in,” one of them ordered, voice clipped.Sofia’s stomach twisted. She stumbled backward, her mind racing. This has to be a mistake… someone will see me…Then a figure emerged from the shadows—tall, sharp, impossible to miss. Nikolai Volkov.“You should’ve stayed home, Sofia,” he s

Nikolai did not disappear to hide.He disappeared to strike back.While the city chased rumors and Interpol chased ghosts, Nikolai Volkov sat in silence, watching a live feed on a muted screen. News anchors speculated. Analysts argued. Everyone spoke his name like it was a curse.He smiled.“They think fear makes people careful,” he murmured. “It doesn’t. It makes them predictable.”He picked up a burner phone and dialed a number that had never been saved.“Phase Black,” he said calmly when the call connected.A pause.“Understood,” the voice replied. “Target?”Nikolai’s eyes hardened.“Someone close to Andrea Konstanio,” he said. “But not dead.”Another pause—longer this time.“You want a message,” the voice said.“Yes,” Nikolai replied. “A living one.”Maria Konstanio was tired.It had been a long day of tension, whispered conversations, security briefings she pretended not to need. Andrea had begged her not to sit alone that evening, but she’d laughed it off.“I raised you,” she’d

CHAPTER 179 Hospitals had a way of stripping people bare.No titles. No empires. No armor.Just fear, antiseptic air, and waiting.Andrea sat alone now, Maria’s room dimmed for the night. Her breathing was steady, the machines keeping a careful watch. Every rise of her chest felt like borrowed time.He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped.He had replayed her words a hundred times.Look closer at who’s still standing beside you.Andrea closed his eyes.Too many people stood beside him.Too many faces. Too many loyalties. Too many histories.Someone had opened a door for Nikolai—quietly, efficiently, without leaving fingerprints.And Andrea had missed it.Anastasia didn’t sleep.She hadn’t slept since Maria collapsed.Instead, she sat in a private office three floors below the ICU, surrounded by screens, files, timelines, and voice logs. Her team moved quietly around her, afraid to interrupt.“Start with access,” she said calmly. “Who knew Maria’s exact route tonight?”A

CHAPTER 181The room stayed silent long after Maria lost consciousness again.The machines filled the space where words should have been.Andrea didn’t move.Didn’t blink.Didn’t breathe normally.Anastasia stood frozen at the foot of the bed, her confession still hanging in the air like poison gas.“You made a deal,” Andrea said at last, his voice frighteningly calm.Anastasia lifted her chin. “To end Nikolai.”“You don’t end men like him with deals,” Andrea replied. “You starve them. You isolate them. You erase them.”“I tried,” she snapped. “And look where your patience got us!”Andrea turned so fast she flinched.“My patience kept Maria alive until you decided strategy mattered more than blood.”The words hit harder than any slap.Chloe, who had been silent the entire time, stepped forward. Her voice trembled—not with fear, but fury.“Get out.”Anastasia stared at her. “What?”“Get out of this room,” Chloe repeated. “Before I forget you’re my sister.”Andrea didn’t stop her.Anast

The Konstanio estate was too quiet.That was how Andrea knew Anastasia was home.No staff moving through the halls. No phones ringing. No music. Just the soft hum of the security system and the weight of everything unsaid pressing against the walls.Andrea didn’t announce himself.He never did anymore.Anastasia stood in the study with her back to the door, fingers wrapped tightly around a crystal glass she hadn’t touched. She was staring at the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows like it might answer something for her.“You shouldn’t be here alone,” she said quietly.Andrea closed the door behind him.“You shouldn’t have made deals with monsters,” he replied.She flinched.Just slightly.Enough.Andrea walked past her and placed the tablet on the desk between them.It lit up on its own.Paused.Waiting.Anastasia’s breath caught the moment she recognized the footage.“No,” she whispered. “You don’t understand—”“Don’t,” Andrea cut in. “Don’t explain. Don’t justify. Don’t lie.”