Chapter 2

I didn’t remember how I got back to the Virel estate.

Kaelis never came home.

I sat on the living room floor until sunrise, staring at the engagement ring on my finger as though it belonged to someone else. The television still played the movie we never finished. The popcorn had gone cold, and two untouched glasses of wine remained on the coffee table exactly where we had left them before he received that message.

Everything inside the mansion looked the same.

Only my world had changed.

I kept convincing myself there had to be an explanation. Maybe I hadn’t seen clearly. Maybe Selene had threatened him. Maybe he had gone there for another reason.

But every excuse shattered beneath the same memory. Selene laughing. Kaelis pulling her into his arms. That kiss.

I closed my eyes. The past came rushing back.

I lost my mother before I was old enough to remember her face. After that, my father became everything to me.

To the underworld, Don Alessandro Sorell was one of Europe’s most feared mafia leaders. To me, he was simply Dad. Strict, demanding, and determined to prepare me for the life awaiting the future heir of House Sorell.

I learned to shoot before I learned to drive. I mastered negotiations before finishing school. Above all, I learned never to let fear show.

For years, I believed our family consisted of only the two of us.

Until Dad brought home a little boy.

I was five.

He was older, dressed in torn clothes, bruised from head to toe, and silent. Dad had rescued him during a raid on a human trafficking ring. No one knew his real name or where he’d come from.

So Dad gave him one. Orin Sorell. He became my only brother.

Nearly a year passed before he finally spoke.

His first word wasn’t “Father.”

It was “Nyra.” My name.

From that day on, he never left my side. As we grew older, I learned why he walked with a limp. When he tried escaping the traffickers as a child, they shattered his left knee. Although it healed, he would never walk normally again.

Dad offered to train him alongside the family’s soldiers. Orin always smiled and refused.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’d rather grow flowers.”

Everyone laughed. Except me. Because I knew he meant it.

He hated gunfire. He apologized for everything, even when it wasn’t his fault. He fed every stray dog that wandered onto the estate, and whenever I couldn’t sleep, he’d sneak into the kitchen to bake pastries, insisting sweet things chased away nightmares.

He was too gentle for the mafia. Maybe that’s why everyone in House Sorell loved him. Even our most ruthless men softened around Orin.

Unfortunately…

Everything changed after Kaelis and I celebrated our first anniversary. There had been a Commission ambush, Kaelis rescued Selene simply because he refused to leave anyone behind. To him, it was nothing more than the duty of the future Don of House Virel and as a man responsible for everyone’s safety.

Selene saw it differently. She mistook compassion for love. From that day on, her affection became an obsession. And I became the obstacle she wanted to remove.

At first, it was harmless humiliation. Flowers Kaelis sent arrived crushed. My dresses were ruined before Commission banquets. Rumors spread that I wasn’t worthy of becoming House Virel’s future queen. Whenever we met, she’d spill wine over my gown or whisper insults only I could hear.

Then the harassment escalated.

My car was vandalized. Threatening letters appeared outside my room. Armed men followed me through the streets before disappearing whenever my bodyguards caught them.

Everyone knew Selene was behind it, but no one could prove it.

She also knew her limits. Killing the only daughter of House Sorell and Kaelis’s fiancée would ignite a war between Europe’s most powerful syndicates.

So instead…

She targeted the one person who couldn’t be protected every second of every day.

My brother.

She invited Orin to what she claimed was a peace negotiation between our families.

He went. Not because he trusted her. Because he believed peace was worth risking his own life.

When Kaelis and I found him, he was lying inside an underground fighting arena. His body was covered in blood. The leg that had already suffered enough had been broken all over again.

Yet his hand still clutched a small velvet box. Inside was the engagement ring Kaelis had secretly entrusted to him. He protected it until his last breath.

I dropped beside him.

“Orin…”

He looked at me and smiled.

Even then… He smiled.

“I… couldn’t let her…take your future…”

Tears blurred my vision. “No. Don’t talk. We’re taking you home.”

He gently shook his head. Then he looked at Kaelis.

“Protect…my sister…”

Finally, his eyes returned to me.

“Don’t…let her…have him…”

His hand slipped from mine.

Just like that…

The gentlest soul I’d ever known was gone.

Even now, I couldn’t walk past a flower shop without thinking of the quiet life he never got to live.

Three months after Orin’s funeral, while my father and I were returning from a Commission meeting, our convoy was ambushed. Three armored vehicles were reduced to flames in a single explosion. Everyone knew the attack bore Selene Ravka’s signature, but no one could prove it. My father and every Sorell escort died shielding me. I was the only survivor, trapped in a coma for the next five years.

After that, Kaelis changed.

The man who once smiled so easily disappeared.

He declared war on the Ravka Circle without waiting for the Commission’s approval. Selene’s allies vanished one after another. Warehouses exploded. Smuggling routes collapsed. Entire ports fell under House Virel’s control.

Every newspaper carried the same headline.

KAELIS VIREL SWEARS TO DESTROY THE RAVKA CIRCLE.

The underworld called him a monster.

At home…

He was still my Kaelis.

He cooked whenever I skipped meals. He warmed my hands every winter. Every night, he repeated the same promise.

“I’ll bring Selene to Orin’s grave. I’ll make her beg for forgiveness.”

I believed him.

Until last night.

I reached for my phone. There was only one man outside House Virel who had warned my father years ago.

Cassian Drax.

The strategist of House Noctis.

He answered on the second ring.

“I was wondering how long it would take before you called.”

I closed my eyes.

“You once told my father that if House Sorell ever needed House Noctis… the offer would still stand.”

“It still does.”

“You also said that if I ever stood against House Virel… you’d give me everything you know.”

“I did.”

Without any hesitation, I said clearly, “I want the evidence. Every surveillance file, every recording, every document you’ve collected on Selene Ravka.”

No answer from the other line, then… “And in return?”

“I’ll give House Noctis everything I know about House Virel. Whatever secrets Kaelis has hidden from the Commission… I’ll uncover them and hand them to you.”

Silence.

Cassian finally asked, “You’d betray the man you’re about to marry?”

“If it gets me the truth…” I said quietly. “I’ll betray anyone.”

“I accept,” Cassian said quietly.

Before I could speak again, he added, “But I have one condition.”

I frowned.

“What is it?”

“You’ll hear it when we meet.”

The call ended.

Tomorrow… I was supposed to become Kaelis Virel’s wife.

Instead, I dialed another number.

“Central Commission Intelligence Division.”

I steadied my breathing.

“My name is Nyra Sorell. I need to report the whereabouts of Europe’s most wanted fugitive.”

A brief silence followed.

“Who?”

I looked toward the white roses decorating tomorrow’s wedding.

They suddenly looked like flowers prepared for a funeral.

“Selene Ravka. I know exactly where she is.”