Alessia sat alone in her room, unmoving, as though stillness might make the memory lose its shape.
It didn't.
No matter how many times she replayed it, no matter how many times she told herself it was exaggerated, that it had been a scare, that nothing really happened, her body refused to forget. The heat. The sound. The way the world had split open in fire and noise and chaos, then closed again as if nothing had ever been wrong.
She had almost died.
Not figuratively. Not emotionally. Not socially.
Physically.
And the worst part was that her mind could not accept the reason.
Adrian Blake.
The name slid through her thoughts like a blade she kept picking up even though it cut her every time.
Adrian almost killed her.
Not because of business. Not because of politics. Not even because she decided to side without Victor.
Because of Seraphina...
