The room was cold. Not because of the air, but because of what it held.
Luca stood in the middle of the dim library, staring at a photo that hadn't moved from the shelf in twelve years.
Two boys. One smiling. One not.
He was the one not smiling.
That was always him.
The scent of dust and old wood was everywhere. No matter how many times the maids tried to polish the truth out of these walls, the rot remained.
Just like the name.
Romano.
It wasn't just a name. It was a threat.
A legacy.
A prison.
The Romano family had been part of the underworld since before Luca was born—ruthless men in suits and silk, smiling over wine and corpses. They raised him in that world. Taught him how to break a man without leaving a bruise. How to smile while delivering warnings. How to disappear, silently and permanently.
But he never wanted it.
He never wanted any of it.
And after his mother died... after the orphanage... after the years of bleeding for people who never saw him as more than a weapon—
He vanished.
Walked away.
Changed his name. Cut ties. Left the legacy to rot.
But legacies don't die quietly.
Especially not when the Romano heir decides to vanish from the map without permission.
They found him once. Beat him within an inch of his life. Warned him.
They would use anything to bring him back.
Even her.
Especially her.
That's why he had to disappear again.
That's why he couldn't speak to her. Couldn't touch her. Couldn't tell her that he wasn't just a stranger with cold eyes—but someone who couldn't stop watching her. Someone who knew every street she walked, every night she locked her window, every time she paused by her mailbox with that little frown on her face.
She was quiet.
Innocent.
Alone.
Just like he used to be.
And that terrified him.
Because Luca knew the type of men who hunted softness.
He'd been one of them.
Until her.
She changed everything. The first time he saw her—head down, arms hugging her books, flinching at a car horn—he felt something in his chest shift. Like the static in his blood paused for a second just to listen.
That was the day he followed her home.
The day he stopped pretending he could stay away.
But obsession, he knew, was dangerous. Especially when the whole world was waiting for him to make a mistake.
And Elena?
She was his biggest weakness.
If they ever knew what she meant to him, she wouldn't just be a pawn.
She'd be a warning.
He had to protect her. Even if that meant staying in the shadows.
Even if it meant watching her smile at someone else. Even if she thought he was gone. Even if she hated him later.
Better that than a body in a coffin with his name etched in her blood.
So he paid off the loan.
So he left her little signs.
So he stood across the street from her window every night and waited to make sure she fell asleep before he did.
Even now, in the dark of the Romano estate, Luca had cameras linked to her apartment building. A burner phone loaded with apps that pinged her location. Not to control her. Not to trap her.
But to keep her alive.
To make sure she never ended up like the others.
He wasn't a good man.
He knew that.
But maybe—just maybe—he could protect something good.
Even if it didn't belong to him.
Even if it never would.