Time: 3:32 a.m. — Hidden Safehouse, Palermo
The bathroom mirror had fogged, but Raina didn't need to see her reflection to know what stared back.
A stranger.
Her wet hair clung to her shoulders like chains. Her eyes were no longer wide with innocence they burned with the wildfire of a woman betrayed. The shower water, cold and metallic, could not cleanse what had been whispered into her bloodstream.
She touched her lips and remembered Matteo's kiss hungry, possessive, addictive.
But now every touch he gave felt like a coded lock she hadn't known was being opened.
"Weapon. Blood code. Vault."
Her father's secrets weren't buried six feet under.
They were inside her.
Downstairs, the air was thick with tobacco, lies, and calculation.
Matteo didn't sit. He stood over the table like a lion guarding a carcass.
Across from him sat Reina Torres La Dama de las Sombras, the queen in stilettos. Her blood-red nails tapped the edge of a sleek briefcase. Dressed in silk and sin, she lit a cigarillo with the calm of a woman who had buried better men for less.
Next to her, Carmine leaned against the wall, arms crossed, his knife strapped casually to his thigh.
"She's the last living heir of Salvador Vega," Reina said, exhaling smoke shaped like daggers.
"And the only one with the gene we couldn't replicate."
Matteo stared at the briefcase. "And if she dies?"
"Then we all do."
Upstairs, Raina listened through the cracked wall.
"Once she turns twenty-two, the dormant sequence activates," Reina said. "Her body becomes the key to unlocking Vega's codes, safe houses, crypto-accounts, and even the Project Crimson vaults."
Carmine added, "It's not just about money. It's biochemical warfare. Her blood is the map."
"You need to mate her to protect her," Reina said coldly. "Or the Bratva will take her womb and extract the code from her ovaries."
Her womb.
Raina backed away like she'd been electrocuted.
A gun wasn't pressed to her temple, but her body her own DNA was under siege.
She was no longer a woman. She was a prize. A trigger. A prophecy.
The tile groaned beneath her step.
Silence downstairs.
Then a single word:
"Run."
Raina bolted.
She flew down the hallway, barefoot, wet hair trailing behind her. Her heart slammed against her ribcage like a trapped bird.
But halfway across the courtyard, strong arms wrapped around her from behind and dragged her into the shadows.
Matteo.
"Let me go!" she screamed, beating her fists against his chest.
"No. You don't understand what they'll do if you leave. Reina isn't giving you time she's buying bullets!"
"You all used me," she spat. "You called me your moon, your fucking mi luna but I was just a code in your bed."
His eyes flickered with something raw grief.
"I didn't know at first," he said. "Not until they brought the briefcase. But Raina what's inside you could restart a cartel war that makes the last one look like a pillow fight."
"You should've told me."
"I was trying to protect you. I'm still trying."
She ripped her arm free. "I don't need protection. I need truth."
He looked at her then, truly looked.
And said the one thing that broke her.
"They want to impregnate you, Raina. To control what grows inside you like it's a seed bank. Reina's plan is to auction your child to the highest bidder. Your womb isn't just biology to them it's a throne."
Silence.
Her eyes filled with tears but none of them fell.
"And you? Were you going to put a crown on me or a chain?"
His voice cracked. "I didn't want to fall for you. But I did. And now loving you feels like treason."
She touched her chest like she could pull the pain out with her fingers.
"Then maybe we were both betrayed by the same thing hope."
He stepped toward her.
But she stepped back.
"I need air," she whispered, disappearing into the garden where moonlight fell on blood-red roses.
Back inside, Reina watched the courtyard cameras.
"She's still breathing," she muttered. "Then he hasn't made his decision yet."
Carmine raised a brow. "Kill or crown her?"
Reina smiled. "Both. Because what better queen than the one who survived being hunted by the ones who claimed to love her?"