2.The fiancée of Milan’s most feared mafia boss slapped me in front of twelve powerful crime families, sneering that I was “only a housekeeper.” But when my three-year-old daughter stepped between us clutching her blue rabbit, the mafia king himself discovered that her toy carried a mark connected to a traitor inside his empire.

By 4:30 a.m., Vivian Romano was brought back into the main library, her wrists bound in steel cuffs.

She no longer looked like the proud, arrogant queen who had slapped me in the hallway hours earlier. Her red dress was torn at the hem, her sleek hair disheveled, and dark circles shadowed her swollen eyes.

When she saw me standing beside Alessandro—wearing his velvet smoking jacket over my clothes to shield against the morning chill—her eyes burned with pure, unadulterated venom.

"You," Vivian spat, her voice raspy from crying. "You absolute rat. You ruined my life! You ruined my brother!"

Alessandro stepped between us, his massive frame completely blocking Vivian’s view of me.

"You ruined your own life, Vivian," Alessandro said coldly, tossing the real estate registry document onto the glass coffee table in front of her. "Romano Holdings S.A. The Navigli mill. Care to explain why your signature is on the land deed?"

Vivian froze. She stared at the paper, her lower lip beginning to quiver violently.

"Alessandro... I... I was just investing our family money," she stammered, trying to step closer to him. "Matteo handled the paperwork! I just signed where he told me to sign!"

"Liar," Alessandro said softly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black flash drive that Marco had extracted from Matteo’s corpse. "We decrypted Matteo’s phone before he died. Do you want me to play the voice notes between you and Lorenzo Rossi?"

Vivian dropped to her knees, weeping hysterically onto the Persian rug she had accused me of ruining hours before.

"He threatened us, Alessandro!" Vivian screamed, her face buried in her hands. "Lorenzo said if we didn't help him blow up your leadership, he would release the evidence that my father embezzled twenty million from the Commission ten years ago! We had no choice!"

"You always have a choice," Alessandro said flatly. "You chose to betray your husband-to-be. You chose to plant an armed target on a three-year-old child."

He walked over to the door, opening it wide.

Two guards stepped into the room.

"Take her to the car," Alessandro commanded. "She is coming with us to Bellagio. When Lorenzo Rossi arrives at her father's estate expecting news of my death, she will open the door for us."

"No! Please! He’ll kill me!" Vivian shrieked, struggling against the guards as they lifted her off her knees. "Alessandro! Look at me! I loved you! She’s just a maid! She’s nothing!"

"She is twice the woman you will ever be," Alessandro said, his voice echoing with absolute finality. "And she sits at my side."

The guards dragged Vivian out into the hallway, her frantic screams fading down the marble stairs.

Alessandro turned back to me.

I stood near the hearth, holding Emma, my heart pounding at the dark, swift justice this man commanded.

"You don't have to come to Bellagio, Clara," Alessandro said gently, walking toward me. "I can leave thirty guards here to secure the villa while we clear the Romano estate."

I looked down at Emma, sleeping peacefully against my shoulder, then looked up into Alessandro’s eyes.

"No," I said firmly. "Lorenzo Rossi gave my daughter that rabbit. He knows what she looks like. Until he is gone, nowhere is safe. We come with you."