phin

to the estate, the rooms had

, save for a single manila envelope placed pr

on the floor of my safehouse,

cheap plastic co

estate. Now," J

f possessive fury, the tone tha

ian," I said, my own

r papers to confetti. The Falcones do not divorc

ition goes before the Underw

he concrete floor and brought the heel of my boot down upon it, ag

the heavily secured apartment and, for t

ogne or the metallic tang of blo

gery had left me hollow and raw, the physical echo of what his violence had torn from me still fresh. I swallo

hen the plate-glass door imp

crambling for the saf

through the

sence filling the small space as they loc

anting his hands on its su

black with a m

me," he

f the annulment papers, and slid them acro

oes not relinquish his a

was your father'

went

of the desk so tightly the

istory of his bloodline an

s through the city. She took her own life in the estate greenhouse because she

seemed to extinguish. "You

y chair, meet

een is a hollow, suffocating fiction. You have not truly seen me in three years. Yo

ncrypted phone began to ring, the shrill to

ne to me, a flicker of

wered the call, his attent

," Julian said, his back already to me

ack into

ing, but my thoughts

secure line a

not sign,

en vows. Otherwise, the Commission will decree a

l and stared at

nbreachable distan

ars, save for a single, violent night

sowed the seed that would

t morning, turning to see h

ypted messages from Elena, s

nderstood where his all

scar inside me was still raw, but the wound I would carve into his empire would be far deeper.