The room pulsed with silence... thick, trembling silence that felt alive.
The muzzle of the gun tremor between Bianca's fingers as it pointed straight at Seraphina's face.
Her chest rose and fell, but her eyes, those stormy emeralds... never blinked.
Seraphina's lips curved into a slow, infuriating smile. "You know, cara mia, you really shouldn't play with fire you can't control,.... So.. What did you want? "
"Quit," Alessia said. Her voice was sharp, commanding, and shaking with the fury of a storm barely caged. "Whatever plan you have, whatever twisted revenge you are craving... quit it now. Because the Morano Empire is mine."
For a brief second, Seraphina's laughter cracked through the tension like shattered glass. "Yours?" she repeated, her tone laced with disbelief and cruel amusement. "You have some audacity, Bianca. You truly do. Do you forget who taught Luca everything he knows? Who stood by his father when he built this empire brick by bloody brick?"
