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A flicker of panic flashes across his face. He glances around again, his mind working frantically, searching for a way out.

I tilt my head, watching as the truth sinks in. “And just to be clear,” I add, my voice dipping lower. “I’m the one holdingyourmaster plan. Not to other way around.”

His entire body locks up.

I take another slow step forward. “You should be more careful about who you fuck, Marco,” I smirk. “Your secretary has a very loose tongue.”

He flinches. “You’re lying.”

I arch a brow. “Am I?”

His face twists, contorting with rage and something else—something darker. Then I see it. The exact moment he realizes he’s been outplayed.

I lower my voice, letting the final nail sink into his coffin. “Your men are walking into a trap. Every safe house you have left is compromised. Every stash, every weapon cache—mine now. You have nothing left.”

His breath shudders. A single tear slips down his cheek.

Pathetic.

I almost tell him just how weak he is, how laughable this whole thing has been—but then I see it. Something shifts in his expression. The panic disappears. The trembling stops. His grip on the gun steadies.

My muscles tense.

I go still.

My father always told me—there’snothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose. And right now, Marco isn’t just a desperate man backed into a corner. He’s something far worse. A man who has already lost everything.

I take a slow breath, raising my hands slightly. “Marco, listen to me?—”

“You think you’ve won,” he says, his voice eerily calm.

I watch him closely. He’s teetering on the edge, and one wrong word, one wrong move, will push him over.

“Drop the gun,” I say, my voice even.

He doesn’t move.

“You know how this ends,” I continue. “You put a bullet in my head, and ten go in yours.”

Marco chuckles, his fingers twitching around the gun. “But that way, we both end up with bullets in our heads, no?”

A bitter laugh escapes him. “I won’t go down alone.”

I see it in his eyes—he’s going to pull the trigger. In this final moment, he’s found the courage I never thought he had.

“Marco—”

A gunshot splits the night.

Everything stops.

25

ARIA

I never understood how silence could be so suffocating.

But ever since Nicolas left, the silence in this house wraps around me like a vice, pressing down on my chest, making every breath feel like a struggle.