Page 97

Story: Dark Mafia Crown

It’s only once in the car that I turn to Nicolo. “How could this breach happen?”

“Someone from your finance team sold the codes to our security network,” he grimaces.

“Sold them to who?”

Nicolo hesitates. “We initially thought it was the Volkovs.”

“Initially?”

“We now think it was her,” Nicolo whispers, looking me dead in the eye.

Her.

“Aria?”I feel the blood rush to my head.

Nicolo nods. “I think she funded the breach in collaboration with her allies. Masked the payments through one of the dormant DeLuca trusts. Your wife just gutted our biggest offshore account.”

I can’t move. I can’t think. We’re meant to be together. We’re meant to raise that child as a family. And here she is, ripping the clothes off my back. My breath catches in my throat, and my chest constricts.

“She’s not afraid of you anymore, and she’s coming for us,” Nicolo says quietly. “And she’s not doing it alone.”

He’s talking aboutmy wife.The woman who just told me she is carrying my child. That she just struck a blade through the spine of my empire.

I clench my jaw and stare out the window as the car takes a turn.

“Aria is pregnant, Nicolo, and she didn’t tell me,” I mutter, almost to myself.

Nicolo meets my gaze. “Would it have changed anything if she did?”

I don’t answer because I don’t know. I’ve been trying so hard to control this game, but now? Now I know that the more I fight back, the more defiant she’ll get.

She could put all of us in danger, especially herself. Especially her child. She doesn’t know this world. She needs an ally who cares about her. Wholovesher.

And right now? She might be surrounded by sharks.

“She’s coming for me with everything,” I murmur.

“She still loves you,” Nicolo adds carefully. “Even if she’s trying to hate you, to burn your empire to ashes.”

My jaw tightens. “She doesn’t get to hate me. Not after everything I’ve done to keep her alive.”

“Yeah?” Nicolo smirks quietly. “Then maybe try telling her that before you go full Bianchi and start setting cities on fire.”

We pull into the underground level of my operations hub—steel-reinforced, off-grid, untouchable.

As I step inside, my men straighten. The tension in the air is electric, sharp enough to cut.

One of my techs approaches, pale and nervous. “Sir, we’ve contained the breach—but not before they hit three offshore accounts. They were surgical. Took what they needed and left. No trace.”

My voice comes out like ice. “Then burn the channels they used. I want them screaming.”

The tech nods and bolts.

I stalk toward my office. Nicolo trails behind.

“She’s not just going to sit and wait for you to come back,” he says behind me. “You know that, right?”

I push open the heavy steel door and step inside, alone now.