I lit a cigarette with hands still reeking of last night’s bourbon and humiliation. Freedom cost me a cool half–million in bail. Didn’t flinch paying it. Money’s easy. Pride? That shit’s gone.§
The second I stepped out of holding, I didn’t call my father. Didn’t call Viktor. Didn’t call my fucking shrink.
I called him.§
Dominik fucking Salvatori.}
Didn’t even need to say much.
“Meet me. No security. Just us.“}
He agreed too fast. Prick probably thought he’d win something poetic from it. Like my surrender. Or my corpse.
We met in one of those quiet properties near Lake Como–neutral ground. Marble floor. Windows wide enough to see your death coming.
Dominik was already there when I arrived. Leaning against the balustrade, wine in hand, looking like a goddamn villain in a tailored suit.
I walked in slow. No handshake. Just silence hanging heavy between us.
He didn’t smile. Didn’t blink.
“You look like shit,” he said.
“I’ve been busy losing everything,” I replied, lighting another smoke. “And you’ve been busy sticking your cock where it doesn’t belong.“)
He laughed once, sharp and cold.§
“She chose me, Zeus. You lost her the second you burned her memory to the ground.”>
I stepped closer. “Don’t pretend you didn’t wait for the chance. You fucking fed off her ashes.”>
“She chose power,” he said calmly. “You gave her pain.“}
That hit.
Dead center.
Felt like someone stuck their fingers in my ribcage and cracked it open.
I clenched my jaw and pulled the Glock from my waistband. Slowly. Quietly.
His men twitched. Mine didn’t. They knew I wasn’t here to bluff.”
`Dominik didn’t move. Just set his wine glass down and straightened his cuff.”
“You gonna shoot me over a woman you treated like collateral?” he said, eyes sharp as glass.
“You think I won’t?”
“No,” he said coolly. “I think you can’t.”}
I pressed the barre! to his chest. Right over that smug Salvatori heart. Then he leaned in, voice lower than the devil’s whisper.
“She’s not your weakness anymore. She’s mine now. And that ring on her finger? That’s war.“}
My trigger finger twitched.
But I didn’t pull. Not here.
Not yet.
Instead, I smiled. The kind that makes people pray they never see you again.}
“You better sleep with two guns under your pillow, Salvatori. Because if she cries even once under your roof–I swear on every corpse in my bloodline–I’ll gut you with a spoon and feed you to your dogs.“}
He didn’t blink.
“Fair warning, Lambert,” he said, stepping back. “If you come near her again, I won’t use words.”
SAVANNAH’S POVE
The wedding dress hung off my body like a memory I never asked for. Silk, ivory, custom stitched. The kind of dress that made little girls dream of altars and forever promises. But when I looked in the mirror, all I saw was war.”
Dominik’s name would be on the invitation. His ring was already on my finger. But the ghost of Zeus’s voice still echoed in the seams.
I remembered the night Zeus slid a diamond across the floor to me years ago. No ceremony. No family. Just his bloodied knuckles, his
crooked smile, and a whisper of, “One day, I’ll give you the world, baby. Just not yet.“}
Yet never came.
All I got was betrayal. And a grave.”
“Don’t like it?” the tailor asked quietly. Poor girl couldn’t even meet my eyes.
“I love it,” I said with a smile that never touched my heart. “It’s the perfect color for burying the past.”
Back at the villa, Luca stood by the bar, arms crossed, watching me like I was a lit match in a room full of gasoline.}
10:19 AM
“You know he’s not done, right?” he said, pouring me a glass of blood–red wine. “Zeus. Zoraya. They’re gonna pull something. I feel it.”
I took the glass and downed it in one breath. My hands didn’t shake. Not anymore.}
“Then he better be willing to die trying,” I said, wiping the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand. “Because I’m not running again, Luca. Let him burn everything down. I’ll still be standing in heels and diamonds.“}
He nodded. Not approving. Just accepting.
“You scare the shit out of me sometimes,” he muttered.”
I grinned. “That’s how I know I’m doing it right.”
-0
Later that night, while I was in the bath, steam curling around the edges of my calm, my phone buzzed. Again.
Unknown Number. But I knew that tone. That desperation. That false hope wrapped in digital ink.
“I’ll leave her. I swear, Savannah. I’ll fix everything. I’ll marry you. We can run away. Start over. Please. Just give me one more chance.” No punctuation. No plan. Just panic.
I stared at the message like it was a bruise on my soul. Then I hit block.
Clean. Simple. Final.
I slid deeper into the water, eyes half–lidded, the sound of soft violin playing from my speakers.
He begged. Again. And still–he didn’t understand.}
This wasn’t a love story anymore.
This was vengeance dressed in lace.
THE WEDDING…
The scent of saltwater, blooming white gardenias, and gun oil.
That was the perfume of the day.
The island was locked down tighter than any fortress I’d ever walked into. Our Moretti men moved like shadows between guests. Discreet, elegant, deadly. Even the violinists had background checks. You don’t plan a wedding like this without expecting war. And yet I was calm.
Not numb. Not cold. Just calm like the eye of a storm that had nothing left to prove.
My dress was a legacy. An heirloom sewn with the names of the dead–my mother’s lace, my grandmother’s pearls, and the weight of blood stitched into every thread. I didn’t walk in it. I reigned in it. The aisle stretched ahead like a silk path to something new.!!
Dominik stood there. That smirk barely curving his lips, like he knew everything and feared nothing. He looked like the man you’d trust with a war–and your heart. Calm in the face of storms. Gentleman on the outside. Gunpowder in his veins.
He met my eyes. Didn’t blink. Didn’t waver.
Just said softly as I approached, “Took you long enough, wife.”
I tilted my head, walking slow, letting the whole world drink me in. “You asked for a queen. You better be ready to be ruled.”
He chuckled low under his breath, leaned forward and whispered against my cheek, “Rule me, bella. Or ruin me. I’ll take both.”
But then–I felt it. A ripple in the air. A shift.”
My eyes scanned the crowd. I spotted him. Zeus.
