LOGINAuthor's POV The road leading to the shrine narrowed the further they drove, until the paved surface gave way to packed earth and the trees grew close enough on either side to brush against the windows.Dante parked at the edge of a clearing.They stepped out together.The place did not look like much from a distance — overgrown grass, old stone half-swallowed by moss, a quiet so complete that even the wind seemed to move carefully through it. But the moment Jem's feet touched the ground inside the clearing, something happened.He felt it instantly.A shift in the air. A pressure, gentle but unmistakable, settling around him like the place itself had turned to look at him.He stopped walking."You feel it," Dante said. It was not a question.Jem nodded slowly. "Yes."He walked further in, drawn forward without entirely meaning to be, until he reached the center of the shrine space — a wide, flat stone circle, weathered by centuries, surrounded by the remains of pillars that had long
Author's POV Dante arrived back at the estate in the late afternoon, the light outside already softening into gold.Jem was waiting near the entrance, the way he always seemed to be waiting now whenever Dante left for something heavy. He did not ask anything right away. He simply watched Dante walk through the door and read what the day had cost him in the set of his shoulders."I saw her," Dante said."I know.""I told her everything that needed to be said." Dante's voice was quiet, worn at the edges in a way Jem had rarely heard. "The inheritance is gone. She can't come back to the estate. I'm not pressing charges." A pause. "She cried. Really cried. Not the version she's used before."Jem listened.He did not ask for more detail than that. He did not push for the exact words, the exact moments, the parts that clearly still sat heavy in Dante's chest. He understood, somehow, that some things did not need to be fully spoken to be carried together.Instead, he simply stepped closer.
Author's POV It took three days.Shark came into the study that morning with the kind of quiet that meant he had something to report."We found her," he said.Dante looked up from the documents in front of him."A small hotel in the city," Shark continued. "She's alone. No new movement on her phone records since she checked in. No contact with the people she was working with — nothing since the day of the accident." He paused. "She hasn't gone anywhere. She's just sitting there."Dante was quiet for a long moment."Send me the address," he said.Shark nodded, already expecting the next instruction — security detail, a plan for retrieval, something procedural.It did not come."I'm going alone," Dante said.Shark's expression shifted. "Boss—""Alone," Dante repeated. Final. Calm. "No security. No you." He stood, reaching for his jacket. "This isn't that kind of conversation."***Jem heard about it twenty minutes later, after Dante had already left.He stood in the hallway with Shark,
Author's POV By the time the sun set, Dante had already turned the entire estate into a command center.He sat at the head of the long table in the study, three phones in front of him, Shark standing at his side with a notepad full of instructions that kept growing by the minute. Dante's voice never rose. He did not raise his hands. He did not pace.He was simply, completely cold and precise."Pull every contact connected to her since the university years," he said. "Every name, every number, every account she's ever touched. I want her movement pattern in the last six months.""Already started," Shark said."Airports, train stations, private transport — flag anything connected to her name or any alias she might use.""On it.""And find out who she called." Dante's eyes were steady, dark, focused. "Whoever helped her plan this — they're the ones who matter more than she does right now."Shark nodded and left to make it happen.Across the room, Jem watched.He had seen Dante calm befo
Author's POV The car pulled through the gates an hour later.Jem was already standing at the entrance when it arrived. He had not been able to sit still since the call from Shark — he had paced, stood at the window, paced again, until finally he had simply planted himself at the front door and waited.The car stopped.The door opened.Dante stepped out.There was a cut above his temple, dried at the edges, a thin line of red against his skin. His wrist was wrapped in a bandage, his jacket sleeve pushed up slightly to make room for it. His suit was torn at the shoulder. But he was walking. Steady. Upright.And his expression already carried something hard and certain behind it — the look of a man who did not need confirmation to already know exactly who was responsible.Then he saw Jem.And something in him shifted.Because Jem was not standing there steady. Jem's face was pale, his eyes rimmed red, his whole body holding itself together through sheer will rather than calm. Dante had
Author's POV It started with a phone.A maid's phone, buzzing on the kitchen counter, a notification lighting up the screen. She glanced at it without thinking. Then she looked again.Her face changed.She did not finish what she was doing. She left it. She moved fast through the hallway, her footsteps loud against the floor, her voice already breaking before she reached the sitting room."Dante Williams— " she said, breathless, the words tumbling out wrong, too fast. "I just saw it—they're saying he's— "She did not finish the sentence.She did not need to.Jem heard it from across the room and his entire body went cold.Not warm-cold. Not nervous-cold.Cold like something inside him had simply stopped working correctly."What did you say?" he asked. His voice did not sound like his own.The maid looked at him, realizing too late what room she had walked into, who she was standing in front of. "It's on the news," she said weakly. "A car accident. They're saying — ""No."The word ca
Jem's POV I couldn’t speak. It felt like my words had gotten stuck somewhere in my throat, refusing to come out.Behind me, I could hear Dante let out a low chuckle, like he was entertained by the entire situation. Neither of us said anything after that.And somewhere between the silence and the s
Jem's POV I lay completely still and said nothing.I couldn't get Dante's words out of my head.‘Do you want us to have sex?’The way he'd said it so casually kept replaying in my mind, as though he'd merely offered me a glass of water.I'd practically felt my heart seize and stop beating for a sec
Jem's POV The words left my mouth before I could stop them, and only then did I realize I had made a serious mistake talking back at him. The moment I saw Dante's expression change, I knew for sure that I was done for. Dante’s eyes dropped, his jaw tightened, and he walked toward me with that d
Jem's POV "He won't hear it from me," I said immediately. "I promise. I have absolutely no reason to say anything to him.""Good." She nodded firmly. "Because that man will lose his mind and I am too old to manage that tonight.""I understand completely."She patted my hand once, satisfied. Then







