"If you don't back away from the girl right now," the first EMT said, reaching for his radio, "I'm calling the police. You have three seconds.""Then call them," Diego replied, his voice calm despite the urgency. "But I'm not moving. This girl dies if I don't help her. And explaining that to her parents is something I refuse to do."The EMT's hand hovered over his radio, uncertainty flickering across his face. Something about Diego's absolute certainty, about the way he moved with practiced precision, made him hesitate.Diego didn't wait for permission. He placed his left hand—the cursed, corrupted, Devil's Hand—directly over the spreading black veins on the little girl's arm.The reaction was immediate and dramatic.The dark corruption in the girl's system recognized the greater darkness in Diego's hand like iron recognizing a magnet. The black veins began to recede, flowing backward through her body toward the point of contact with Diego. The cursed energy that had been killing her

Esperanza sat in the family conference room, her hands folded tightly in her lap as she waited for Santiago to arrive. As the heir and majority shareholder of the Vega Estate, her brother held legal control over family decisions. She couldn't overrule him. Couldn't force him to see reason through authority or leverage.All she had left were words. And the desperate hope that somewhere beneath Santiago's stubbornness and manipulation, a shred of the brother she'd grown up with still existed.Santiago entered looking defensive before Esperanza had even spoken, his shoulders squared as if preparing for battle."If you're here to lecture me again—" he started."I'm here to beg you," Esperanza interrupted, and the raw vulnerability in her voice made Santiago pause. "One final time. Please, Santiago. Don't marry Isabella. Not yet. Not until we know for certain what happened to Diego. Not until we can verify she's not working with the people who killed Father.""We've been over this," Santia

Alejandro walked out of the Vega corporate building with a spring in his step that would have been unseemly for someone who'd just admitted to murder. But he didn't care. The satisfaction coursing through his veins was too intoxicating to suppress.Years. He'd waited years for this moment. Years of planning, scheming, suffering. Years of watching the Vegas enjoy wealth and power that should have been his. Years of being treated like nothing, like a criminal, like someone beneath their notice.And now, finally, everything was falling into place.Diego was dead. Esperanza was powerless. Santiago was about to marry Isabella and sign away his family's empire without even realizing it.Victory tasted sweet.But as Alejandro drove away from the building, a new thought began to crystallize in his mind. A dangerous, greedy, beautiful thought that made his smile widen even further.Why should he share?Lucia had been useful. A partner in planning and execution. But once they controlled the Veg

Diego stared at the television screen, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing. Santiago and Isabella. Married. The ceremony had already happened. Yesterday. While he'd been unconscious and helpless in a hospital bed.After everything they'd told Santiago. After all the warnings about Isabella working with their father's killers. After the contract Diego had forced him to sign. Santiago had actually gone through with it.The stupidity was breathtaking. Or the bravery, depending on how you looked at it. But either way, the result was the same—Isabella Rodriguez was now Isabella Vega, with legal access to the family fortune and all the power that came with it.This was Alejandro and Lucia's doing. Had to be. They'd orchestrated this entire scheme to take control of the Vega Empire from the inside. And Santiago, that manipulated fool, had handed it to them gift-wrapped."I need to leave," Diego said, pulling the IV from his arm despite the nurse's protests."Mr. Herrera, you ca