The next morning, I woke up with that familiar heaviness pressing against my chest.
The city outside hummed faintly, but inside, silence wrapped the house like a chokehold. This house had never been home. Not two years ago, not now. And yet here I was again. I was trapped, collared by Jace Romano's obsession, pretending the walls weren't suffocating me every second they kept me in.
Except this time, things were different. I wasn't that naïve girl who let him bend me until I broke. I was stronger. Sharper. I had something to fight for beyond anger.
Revenge.
Massimo's texts burned on my phone, tucked neatly under a fake app only I knew how to hide. He wanted that document. He wanted me to play my part.
And deep down, I wanted it too. Because if it was true that Jace's father was the reason I had no family, then the Romanos deserved to crumble.
The faint knock on my door snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Come in," I said, already knowing who it was.
Of course it was him.
