Leo sat in the back of a blacked-out sedan, his head resting against the cool leather of the headrest. The chaos of Florence was hundreds of miles behind them, but the scent of the vineyard and the metallic tang of blood still seemed to cling to his skin. Outside the window, the lights of the city blurred into long, golden streaks as the car moved through the night with a quiet, powerful hum.Next to him, Sebastian was tapping away on a thin glass tablet. The blue light from the screen reflected off his glasses, making him look more like a bored accountant than a man who had just helped orchestrate the dismantling of a criminal empire."The Lorenzo assets have been fully integrated," Sebastian said, his voice flat and professional. "His villas are being liquidated, and the Council of Five has already approved the redistribution of his territories. As far as the world is concerned, Don Lorenzo never existed."Leo didn't answer. He was looking at his left hand. The bandage was gone, rep

The windshield wipers fought a losing battle against the downpour, slapping back and forth with a rhythmic, grating screech. Elena gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles looked like white marbles. The old sedan felt like a tin can being tossed around by the wind. She was three hours north of the city, deep in the stretch of highway where the streetlights disappeared and the trees leaned over the road like giant, reaching hands.On the passenger seat, the black velvet bag sat perfectly still.Elena looked at it out of the corner of her eye. It looked like a hole in the world. It didn’t move, but it felt like it was getting heavier with every mile. Inside that bag was the life of a stranger and the death of her mother, or maybe the other way around."Just drive," she whispered, her voice shaking. "Just get to Montreal. Just save her."But her heart wasn't in it. Every time the tires hit a puddle and the car hydroplaned for a split second, her stomach dropped into her shoes. She

The hospital hallway was a tunnel of white light and the smell of antiseptic. Elena sat in the hard plastic chair, her body feeling like it was made of lead. She looked down at her hands. The dried mud from the highway was stuck under her fingernails, a dark reminder of the woman she had almost become.Leo was sitting on the floor at her feet. He didn't care about the dirty tiles or the people walking past. He had his head resting on her knee, his eyes closed. He looked so small, so tired."I thought I lost you," Leo whispered. His voice was muffled by the fabric of her jeans. "When I went to the apartment and saw the door open... I felt like the world had just stopped breathing."Elena reached down, her fingers trembling as she ran them through his messy hair. The guilt was a physical weight in her chest. He was here, worrying about her, while she had been driving a car full of treason into the dark."I was just... I was desperate, Leo," she choked out. "I thought I had to do it. I t

The hospital hallway was quiet, filled only with the steady, mechanical pumping of the machines behind the ICU doors. It was a lonely sound that made the space between them feel even wider. Leo stood by the elevator, frozen. The paper bag of bagels he had brought had fallen, and they were scattered across the floor. It was a messy reminder of the normal life they had been living only an hour ago.He didn't try to move toward her. He could see the look in her eyes. It wasn't just anger. It was a cold, distant kind of horror. She was looking at his face, searching for the boy she had loved, but all she found was a stranger with a hard, unfamiliar expression."Elena," he said. His voice was deep and steady. He didn't use his "student" voice anymore...that soft, slightly unsure way of speaking he had used for months. That person was gone. In his place was a man who sounded like he was used to giving orders and having them followed without question."I told you to leave," Elena said. Her v

Leo walked down the quiet hallway of the Humanities building, the sound of his own footsteps flat against the linoleum. He didn't have to look back to know his presence felt different now. He wasn't slouching. He wasn't trying to disappear into the paint. He felt a cold satisfaction in his chest after the news of Victor Thorne’s arrest, but it was buried under the exhaustion of the last week. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Elena’s face. He saw the way she looked at him like he was a monster. He had saved her mother, he had cleared her debts, and yet he had never felt more like a loser.He reached a corner where the lighting was a bit weak. The building was old, and this part of the campus was usually empty this late in the afternoon. He was about to keep walking when he stopped.A woman was standing near the entrance to the old lecture hall.It wasn't Elena.It was Maya Sterling.But it wasn't the Maya he remembered. The girl who had been shaking in a corner while her father tr