Lyra

The photograph trembles between my fingers. I look down at the photograph again. The little boy can’t be more than a year old, dark hair and bright green eyes, with one tiny hand wrapped stubbornly around a building block.

An unfamiliar, sharp twist aches deep in my chest—something primal and entirely uninvited.

Slowly, my gaze lifts. Dante hasn’t moved.

He is watching me, waiting with an unsettling patience, as if he had already lived this exact moment a hundred times inside his head.

The silence in the room is suffocating, the air too thin to breathe. I tighten my grip on the paper, the edges crinkling under my thumb.

"Who is he?" The question leaves me in a whisper.

"Someone worth killing."

"What does that mean?"

Dante doesn't blink. He just tracks the movement of my lips.

My voice grows stronger, fueled by the sheer frustration of his stillness.

"Why does he look like you? What is his photograph doing in a file about my father?"

I wait. One heartbeat. Then another. The silence stretches until it feels deliberate, every passing second tightening around my throat.

"You know what?" A bitter laugh escapes me. "Forget it."

I clutch the photograph against my chest and take a step back. "I don't know what game you're playing, but I'm done."

I turn sharply toward the office door. It doesn't matter if it's locked. I'll pound on it until someone opens it. Behind me, Dante doesn't call my name. He doesn't tell me to stop.

The absence of his voice unsettles me more than if he'd shouted. I reach the door and grab the sleek metal handle. It doesn't move. I twist harder. Nothing.

A pulse of panic flares through me. I press my thumb against the biometric scanner beside the frame.

A harsh red light flashes.

Access denied.

My stomach drops. Slowly, I turn around. Dante hasn't moved from his sit. His expression is unreadable.

"You locked me in."

"You were told not to leave."

My disbelief erupts into anger. "You don't get to imprison people because they refuse to marry you."

"No." His voice remains maddeningly calm. "I imprison people when walking away would put lives at risk."

I stare at him. "What does that even mean?"

He doesn't answer. Instead, his gaze drops briefly to the photograph still clutched in my hand, before rising back to meet mine.

I march back toward the desk, every step fueled by equal parts fear and fury. I slam the photograph flat onto the cool, polished wood between us.

"Then explain this." I jab my finger toward the little boy's face. "Is he your son?"

"...Yes."

The single word knocks the breath from my lungs. My eyes fall back to the photograph. The little boy smiles up at me, oblivious to the way my world has just shifted.

My throat tightens. "When?" I ask quietly. "When did you have him?"

He holds my gaze without answering.

A bitter laugh escapes me.

"So that's it." I shake my head, unable to look at him.

"You ask me to marry you. . ." My voice trembles despite every effort to steady it. "All this time, you've been asking me to become your wife. . . and you already have a child."

My eyes remain fixed on the photograph. He can't be more than a year old. About the age my own son would have been.

Pain squeezes around my heart so suddenly I have to swallow against it. For one impossible moment, jealousy and grief become the same emotion.

I don't even know who I'm angry with.

Dante, the woman who gave birth to this little boy, or fate itself.

A memory flashes without warning; Green eyes laughing across a tiny café table. Dante reaching over to steal a chip from my plate before I could slap his hand away.

"You're impossible," I'd laughed.

"And yet you keep saying yes to dinner."

The memory vanishes as quickly as it comes.

Then something nags at me.

I frown and look down at the open file again. The photograph isn't sitting in a family album.

It's inside an investigation file.

My gaze snaps back to Dante.

"Wait. . ."

I lift the photograph slightly.

"What is your son's picture doing in a file about my father?"

Dante remains silent. Instead, his unwavering gaze is piercing as he stares at me.

"Why won't you answer me? Do you enjoy this? Watching people tear themselves apart while you stand there saying almost nothing?"

For the first time since I walked into the penthouse, Dante closes his eyes—just for a fraction of a second. When they open again, they're colder than before.

He sets his whiskey glass down with a quiet, deliberate clink. His fingers curl briefly against the edge of the desk before relaxing. His hand settles on the dark wood right beside the photograph. Not touching it. It looks like he's protecting it.

For the first time, I see something beneath the control. Not anger. Not impatience. Something far more dangerous.

"My son's name is Cassian," he says.

His voice is quieter now, rougher around the edges. The name settles somewhere deep inside me, heavy and permanent. Cassian. He isn't just a face in a file anymore.

I lower my eyes to the grainy image once more, my thumb gently brushing over the little boy's face.

"Cassian," I murmur.

I swallow the lump in my throat and look back up, refusing to let Dante see me break. "What is Cassian's photograph doing in this file?"

Dante studies me before dropping a bomb. ". . . because your father has been searching for him."

My breath catches. "What?"

"For over a year."

The words refuse to make sense.

"Searching for him?"

"Do you remember what I told you?"

I frown. "You said my father has spent the last year trying to find him. I swallow the lump in my throat. "But that still doesn't answer what his picture is doing here?"

Dante inclines his head. "You're not asking the right question, Lyra," he says, his voice drop-dead quiet. He leans in closer across the desk, his green eyes burning into mine. "Ask me why your father wants him dead."

Chapter 4

Lyra

"Why?" The question leaves my lips before I can stop it. "Why would my father want Cassian dead?"

The thought refuses to make sense. The file Dante placed in front of me has already dismantled the image I’ve spent my entire life believing about father, but this is different.

Corruption is one thing; ordering the death of a child is another.

Dante doesn't answer. He returns to his desk, picking up a small black remote. A soft mechanical hum fills the room as a large screen glides smoothly from the wall, flickering to life to reveal a nursery. Soft afternoon sunlight spills through the windows, bathing scattered toys and a thick cream rug in a warm glow.

In the middle of it all sits Cassian, completely engrossed in balancing colorful wooden blocks. His tiny tongue peeks from the corner of his mouth in deep concentration.

He carefully places a yellow block at the very top of his unstable tower, holding his breath. When it stays, his little face lights up with absolute triumph. He proudly points at it, babbling happily to the nanny, who applauds and cheers for him.

The praise delights him so much he claps his hands, loses his balance, and topples backward onto the plush cream rug. He doesn't cry. Instead, he rolls over with a giggle, crawls on his hands and knees toward a floppy-eared stuffed rabbit, and pulls it into a fierce, chubby-armed hug.

He isn't just a photograph anymore. He's a living, breathing little boy.

Slowly, I turn my head to look at Dante. "You've been watching him?"

"Every hour of every day," he replies, his eyes never leaving the monitor.

"That's not protection," I whisper, a chill running down my spine. "That's obsession."

"He's alive because I'm obsessed." His voice is flat, devoid of defense, stating it as an undeniable fact of his existence.

Before I can process the weight of his words, the screen suddenly splits. On the other half of the display, rain lashes relentlessly against the entrance of a towering, sleek stone building.

Headlights pierce the downpour as a black SUV glides through the back gate, rolling to a smooth stop near the service entrance.

The driver's door opens. A man dressed entirely in tactical black gear, boots, and a ski mask climbs out. Then another. Then two more. Four men in perfect, disciplined formation move toward the building with quiet efficiency.

My stomach violently contracts. "What is this? Dante, what is this?"

Dante's hand rises to a sleek black earpiece tucked into his collar.

"Alpha," he commands, his voice a low, chilling rasp. "Service entrance." A pause. "Four hostiles." Another pause. "Bravo, lock down level three. Echo, secure the child."

He grips the edge of the dark wood desk so hard his knuckles turn white, his posture radiating a terrifyingly lethal focus.

Nothing about his response feels improvised. Every command is immediate. Every voice answers without hesitation. With chilling clarity, I realize this entire operation exists for one purpose—to keep that little boy alive.

"No shots near the nursery," he adds, his tone dropping an octave. "Move."

On the left side of the screen, Cassian giggles as another tower of wooden blocks collapses into a colorful heap. On the right, four armed men disappear deeper into the building.

Two worlds occupy the same screen, racing toward each other.

Then, the camera angle in the corridor shifts. One of the masked men stops beneath a security light, adjusting the strap of his tactical vest. The movement is brief, but the silver insignia on his sleeve catches the harsh glare of the fluorescent bulbs.

My breath catches painfully in my throat.

I know that emblem. I’ve seen it my entire life. I remember those identical silver insignias lining the driveway of our estate when I was a little girl.

I remember my father clapping those very men on the shoulder, praising their division as the finest security force in the country, telling me I would always be safe because they were guarding our gates.

I had spent twenty-six years believing those uniforms represented honor and protection.

The reality lands like a physical blow, shattering my childhood memories into jagged pieces.

Those men had spent years protecting my father.

Tonight, they are hunting a child.

"No," I whisper, my mouth going instantly dry. "That's. . . that's my father's security company."

Dante slowly turns his head. He doesn't say a word. He just watches me, his green eyes dark and unreadable, witnessing the exact second every certainty I've ever had about my father begins to crumble.

Dante's words from moments ago echo in my mind with terrifying force.

Ask me why your father wants him dead.

I look from Dante’s freezing gaze back to the live feed of the nursery, where Cassian is reaching for another block.

"These men. . . " My voice breaks. "They're here to kill him."

Dante holds my gaze, his expression entirely carved of stone.

"Yes."

Lyra

"They're hunting Cassian." The words barely leave my lips before my heartbeat drowns out everything else. For one suspended moment, I can't breathe. I can't think. All I can do is stare.

The large display mounted against the wall is divided neatly into two live feeds. On the left, Cassian sits cross-legged on the nursery floor, completely engrossed in the little tower he's building from brightly colored wooden blocks.

A sudden, fierce ache twists in my chest. It is an irrational, maternal urge so sharp it leaves me breathless-a desperate desire to reach through the monitor, scoop him up into my arms, and shield his eyes from the darkness heading his way.

He is too young to understand that his world has shifted. Unbothered. Unafraid.

My gaze drifts to the right side of the display. The four masked men continue through the corridor with terrifying precision. Each measured step brings them closer to the nursery. Closer to Cassian.

"Dante. . ." My voice comes out thinner than I intend.

He doesn't answer. He touches the sleek, flesh-colored earpiece tucked behind his right ear, his eyes locked on the moving targets.

"Bravo, flank from the service elevator," Dante murmurs, his voice a low, lethal whisper. "Echo, choke point at the threshold. You have six seconds." A pause. "No noise."

Another pause. "No breach."

On the screen, the masked men stop outside the final security door. One swipes a key card.

The lock clicks. My throat tightens painfully.

On the left side of the screen, Cassian giggles as another tower of wooden blocks collapses into a colorful heap. On the right, the door swings open.

"Do something," I plead, the whisper escaping before I can stop it.

Dante doesn't look at me, but his fingers curl tightly against the edge of the mahogany desk.

The four men step into the final corridor. The nursery door is right there, a pristine white barrier at the end of the hall. One of the masked men lifts his hand toward the handle.

"Now," Dante whispers into his earpiece.

Six of Dante's security guards materialize from the shadows of the intersecting hallway, weapons already drawn.

The corridor erupts.

The violence is fast, clinical, and devastating. A wrist is shattered. A knife flashes, catching one guard across the forearm. He doesn't even slow. He drives his weight forward, pinning the attacker against the wall.

Within three breathless seconds, three of the intruders are slammed facedown onto the polished floor, their weapons kicked away.

The leader of the cell struggles violently, his mask catching on the corner of a security camera bracket during the scuffle. The fabric tears, ripping completely off his face.

My heart stops.

The screen displays his face in sharp, high-definition focus.

Hold up! That's Gregory.

My breath leaves me in a ragged gasp.

Gregory-the man who had stood guard outside my father's private study for a decade. The man who had politely held doors open for me, who had escorted me to my college graduation, who had smiled and asked about my day.

Those men had spent years protecting my family. Tonight, they were sent to slaughter a baby. My stomach violently turns, a wave of profound, sickening guilt washing over me.

On the left side of the display, Cassian doesn't even look toward the door. He's too busy trying to balance a blue block on top of his little tower, blissfully safe.

Slowly, I turn to Dante. He is standing exactly where he was, but the mask of the cold, unfeeling monster has slipped.

His shoulders drop. A shaky, uneven breath escapes his lips, his chest rising and falling as if he had just emerged from deep water.

His hand remains flat on the desk, trembling just enough for me to see it, before he slowly tightens it into a fist to hide the tremor.

The terrifying, obsessive warlord is gone, replaced for a single, fleeting second by a father who had just stared into the abyss of losing his child-and barely won.

A thousand questions crash through my mind, colliding with one another until only one survives.

I stare at him, my voice barely more than a whisper. "Why? Why would you protect him like that?"

For a long moment, Dante says nothing. His green eyes drift back to the display, softening as they watch Cassian happily rebuild the little tower that keeps refusing to stand.

Then he finally looks at me.

"Because. . . " There's a quiet beat, the word heavy between us. "He's ours."