LOGINANTONIO POVA year had passed since the wedding, and I had learned, in that time, that nothing in my entire life — not the warehouses, not the territories, not the empire I'd built brick by bloody brick out of an inheritance that should have been mine from the start — had prepared me for the sound of my wife screaming in pain in the back of a car racing toward the hospital at two in the morning."Drive faster, Carlos.""I'm driving as fast as the law allows, boss.""I don't care about the law right now."Amy gripped my hand hard enough to bruise, breathing through gritted teeth the way the doctors had taught her in the birthing classes I'd sat through every week for the last two months, refusing to miss a single one despite the empire that still demanded my attention daily. Carlos had rearranged half my schedule without asking just to make sure of it, something I'd pretended not to notice and silently appreciated more than I'd ever admit to him out loud. "Antonio, if you don't stop ho
AMY POVI had never imagined a wedding for myself, not really. Growing up in a house full of shattered plates and slammed doors hadn't left much room for dreaming about white dresses and flower arrangements, hadn't left room for dreaming about much of anything beyond getting through each day without becoming collateral damage in someone else's anger. But standing in front of the mirror in the back room of the chapel, watching Loretta fuss over the last few pins in my hair, I realized I'd been dreaming about this without knowing it — not the dress, not the flowers, but this exact feeling, the one where my chest felt too full to hold everything inside it, where happiness pressed up against the edges of my body like it might spill out through my skin if I wasn't careful."Stop fidgeting," Loretta scolded gently, though her own hands were shaking slightly as she adjusted my veil, her reflection in the mirror showing eyes already glassy with unshed tears. "You'll ruin the pins, and then we
ANTONIO POVThe house had taken eleven months to build, and I had visited it more times than I could count, standing in empty rooms imagining furniture that hadn't arrived yet, walls that hadn't been painted, a life that hadn't started yet but that I could already feel taking shape in the bones of the place, the way you can sometimes feel a storm coming before the first cloud appears on the horizon.I'd started the project before Amy ever knew about it, back when I'd told myself it was simply a smart investment, another property to add to a growing portfolio, another asset to diversify the empire I'd spent my whole life clawing together out of nothing. It hadn't taken long for the lie to fall apart in my own head. I knew, even back then, lying awake at night with blueprints spread across my desk, exactly who I was building it for. Every choice I made — the wide windows that let in the morning light, the garden space out back, the extra room upstairs I told the architect I wasn't sure
AMY POVHappiness, I had come to learn, was not a single feeling. It was a thousand small ones stacked on top of each other until they became too heavy to carry quietly, until they spilled out of you in the form of humming while you brushed your hair, or smiling at strangers for no reason, or crying in the produce aisle because a song came on the radio that reminded you of someone who finally loved you the way you'd always hoped someone would.I cried in a lot of produce aisles those days. I'd given up being embarrassed about it months ago."You're doing it again," Ravenna said, eyeing me over the rack of sundresses we'd been picking through for the better part of an hour, her sunglasses pushed up into perfectly styled hair, a coffee cup balanced in one manicured hand. "That dopey little smile. It's honestly a bit much, Amy.""I can't help it." I held a blue dress up against myself in the mirror, turning side to side, watching the fabric catch the light. "Do you think he'll like this
ANTONIO POVDocuments, I had learned over the years, were more dangerous than guns.A gun could kill a man once. A signature, properly placed on the right document at the right time, could erase him entirely — his properties, his accounts, his legacy, all of it folded quietly into someone else's name while the world moved on without ever noticing the theft had happened at all. No headlines, no funerals for an empire, just paperwork changing hands in rooms no one thought to look into.That was the kind of war I preferred to fight.“Enzo's lawyer is being difficult,” Carlos said, dropping into the chair across from my desk with the particular weariness of a man who had spent the entire morning on the phone arguing in circles. “Says he needs proper documentation proving succession before he'll release anything.”“Proper documentation.” I almost laughed, leaning back in my chair. “Enzo is dead, Carlos. There is no succession committee left to argue with him. La Tigre Nera doesn't exist an
ANTONIO POVA week of peace was apparently the most the universe was willing to grant me, because by Monday morning the warmth of the celebration had already given way to the cold, familiar weight of work, the way it always did, no matter how badly I wanted to stay in that terrace light a while longer.“Silvio's been spotted twice this week,” Carlos said, setting a folder on my desk and dropping into the chair across from me without waiting for permission, a habit I'd long since stopped correcting. “Once near the docks. Once outside the warehouse on Fifth.”“My brother's warehouse.”“Was your brother's warehouse,” Carlos corrected, and there was something almost gleeful in the way he said it, the satisfaction of a man who had waited a long time to say those words in the past tense.I opened the folder. Photographs, dates, a man who had once been one of my brother's most trusted lieutenants now skulking around property that should have been buried in legal limbo for months yet, tied up
Amy's POV It would be really pathetic if I died here.That was all I could think about. Mr Moretti carried me through a swarm of chaos and the pain from my lower back spread. Everything happened in a blur by the time I woke up the pain had come down considerably but it still hurts to think about
Amy's POV Mr Morette's firm body moved as fluidly as water, this kind of dancing wasn't my forte but he led me so naturally that even I with little to know experience with this was able to weave past the other couples naturally blending in with the others that's we're dancing as well because of ho
Kieren's POV I knew I should have backed away when I had the chance. This wasn't like me, I wasn't the type to backtrack and change my decisions. If I wanted her to be at the service of those that patronized my business then there was no reason why I could not send her off just like how I had don
Amy's POV Life was really a roller coaster. If anyone had told me a couple of weeks ago that I'd ever find myself in a scenario like this I'm ashamed to admit that I would have honestly just laughed in their face half mocking their imagination. I'd say it was a dream and they had to wake up. Bu







