The neon sign of Caffè Venezia flickered against the damp autumn air of Manhattan, casting a sickly amber glow over the linoleum floor. I wiped down the counter for the fourth time that hour, my mind miles away. Columbus Circle hummed with its usual evening symphony of honking taxis, sirens, and rushing pedestrians, but none of it registered. All I could see were those dark, bottomless eyes of Alessandro Russo.

The war had come to our doorstep. Vance hadn't just plotted from the shadows; he had launched a full-scale armed assault on the Russo estate, bringing rogue mercenaries and traitors to overthrow the patriarch in a single, bloody night.

"Marco!" Alessandro shouted over the deafening roar of gunfire. "Secure the boy! Get them to the underground bunker!"

Marco appeared in the doorway, firing his submachine gun blindly down the corridor before grabbing my arm. "Boss, we have to move! The entire perimeter is breached!"

"I'm not leaving without you!" I screamed at Alessandro, trying to wrench my arm out of Marco's grip as Alessandro fired back methodically toward the shattered foyer windows, dropping two of Vance's hitmen with cold precision.

"Go, Sophia!" Alessandro yelled over the din of battle, his dark eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that burned straight into my soul. "Survive! I will find you when this is over. I swear on my life!"

Marco didn't give me a choice. He hauled me bodily down the hidden staircase behind the library shelves, plunging us into the cool, stone-lined subterranean tunnels of the estate. Behind us, the sounds of war echoed through the villa—explosions, shouting, and the relentless pop-pop-pop of gunfire.

We rushed down the damp corridor until we reached the heavy steel vault of the panic room, where little Luca and Maria were huddled together, wide-eyed and weeping.

I dropped to my knees, pulling Luca into my arms, burying my face in his curls as my whole body convulsed with sobs. I had wanted out of this world from the moment I set foot in it. I had cursed Alessandro for bringing me here, for kidnapping me, for dragging me into his mafia web.

But as I sat there in the dark, listening to the muffled explosions shaking the earth above us, I realized a terrifying truth: I wasn't afraid of his world anymore. I was only terrified of losing him.

"Is my papa coming?" Luca whispered, looking up at me with those exact same dark, expressive eyes that belonged to the man upstairs.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, forcing a brave smile through my tears. "Your papa is the strongest man in the world, Luca," I whispered fiercely. "He always comes back."

Minutes ticked by like agonizing centuries. The gunfire above slowly faded, replaced by an eerie, suffocating silence.