ella

o my skin. "You vicious *puttana* (whore)," he repeated

dn't humiliate you because of me, Leo," I said, my voice a deadly calm. "He humiliated you because

l. Luca let out a sharp breath, pressing his small body harder

stepped forward, her manicured hands wrapping around his raised a

ving, before shoving my arm

eacemaker act. "We are willing to be reasonable, Isabella," she said, her tone dripping with fake pity. "To compensate for the public emba

hing," Leo spat, ad

behavior was entirely contradictory. She had stopped Leo from hurting me, yet she was obsessively fixated on my family's assets. A

f my mother's diamonds and spread my father's shipping routes, warehouse deeds, and

ngelica looking for? A hidden smuggling route? A secret

them inside my father's heavy iron safe, a cold certainty settled over me. Whate

zo

iskey, iodine, and despair. Heavy velvet curtains suffocat

mien sat motionless, his hollow eyes fixed on the dark wall. He looke

port. I spoke of Don Luciano's decree, the humiliating gifts deliver

e hadn't reacted to a

, keeping my posture rigid. "He was violent. But the boy

ched, heavy a

t. Damien's index finger, res

y leaves scraping against stone-a v

s chest rising with a shallow,

my life to, feeling a strange, u

I answered softly

the faintest ghost of a smile