Her breath catches. The air shifts.
I want to touch her. I don’t.
Control is discipline. Discipline is survival.
CHAPTER 19
Seraphina
I shouldn’t have pushed Vescari but I am tired of being measured like porcelain. Lucien doesn’t understand that the more he shields me, the more they will try to crack me.
I spent the afternoon in the data room reviewing shipping logs. Numbers blur after hours. Outside, rain presses against the glass.
A knock at the door, it’s one of the junior analysts. Elias. He’s quiet. Nervous.
“I thought you might want these,” he says, handing me updated manifests.
He doesn’t look at me long. People rarely do.
“Thank you,” I say gently.
He hesitates “If you ever need help navigating the data systems… I can assist.”.
“I might take you up on that.”
He leaves quickly.
I don’t know if this is the beginning of something.
Not yet.
Lucien rarely allowed himself moments of reflection. Reflection had a tendency to slow men down, and hesitation was something he had trained himself to eliminate years ago. The world he lived in rewarded decisiveness. When opportunities appeared, you either took them immediately or someone else did. When threats surfaced, you eliminated them quickly or risked letting them grow stronger.
Still, there were rare nights when the quiet pressed against him in a way that made thinking unavoidable.
Tonight was one of those nights.
The office was nearly dark except for the amber glow of the desk lamp. Shadows stretched across the polished wood floors and climbed the walls like silent observers. Outside, the city lights flickered endlessly, a constant reminder that the worldnever truly stopped moving. Somewhere out there, deals were being made, alliances were shifting, and enemies were already planning their next move.
Lucien understood that reality better than most people ever would.
Power wasn’t something you achieved once and then kept forever, it had to be defended constantly. Every day. Every hour. Every decision carried consequences that could ripple outward in ways few people anticipated.
Yet lately, despite the weight of those responsibilities, his thoughts kept returning to one person.
Seraphina Calista Moretti
He leaned back slightly in his chair, rubbing his thumb thoughtfully against the edge of a glass resting on the desk. It irritated him that she occupied his mind this often. Distractions were weaknesses, and weaknesses were dangerous in his position, but Sera wasn’t just a distraction. She was becoming something far more complicated than that. Something that made him question instincts he had relied on for years, and Lucien didn’t like questions he couldn’t immediately answer.
CHAPTER 20
Lucien
Belladonnaescalates.
Small disruptions. A delayed shipment. A missing contact in Toulon.
Nothing catastrophic.
