Lorenzo's POV
In the darkness, I had a long dream.
I was at Lake Como, three years ago. The sun was perfect. Isabella was in a white dress, running toward me, smiling.

I reached out to hold her, but my hands passed right through her.
She dissolved like smoke, turning into Nonna's cold body, into the blood-stained walls of the prison, into that divorce agreement.
"Lorenzo, you're not just a bad man. you're filth."
Her voice echoed in the empty world.
"Awake?"
An old, commanding voice pulled me back to reality.

I snapped my eyes open. The bright white light made me shield my face.
I was in the Romano estate's private clinic.
Marco stood in the corner, his head bowed, not daring to breathe.
And sitting by my bed was the man who had controlled the New York underworld for forty years—my father, Don Antonio Romano.

He held his lion-headed cane, the symbol of his power, and looked at me coldly. Like I was a stranger.
"Father..." I started to speak, but my throat felt like it was full of razor blades.
CRACK!
A hard slap across my face cut me off.
The force was so great that my lip split, and blood trickled out.
He had always been strict, but he had never hit me.
This was the first time.
"Don't call me Father." The old Don stood up, looking down at me. "I have no son who would trample on his family's honor for a whore."
I held my cheek, saying nothing.
"The recording from the wedding is everywhere," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "The Commission sent an inquiry this morning. The Five Families are all waiting to watch us burn. Our stocks have dropped 20 percent. Three of our port shipments are being held. Even the small-time gangs are making moves on our turf."
He slammed his cane on the floor. "This is what you've done!"
"Cassandra... she framed..." I tried to explain.
"Shut up!" the old Don roared. "You think I care about the truth? I care that you brought shame to the Romano name! You were stupid enough to frame your own wife for a 'blood oath'? You broke Omertà! You've become a traitor!"
He took a deep breath, pulled a document from his coat, and threw it on my bed.
"Sign it."
I picked up the document. my hands were shaking.
TRANSFER OF POWER
"Sign it, then get the hell out of here and go to Sicily to think about what you've done," the old Don said coldly. "Until this mess is buried, you are stripped of everything. You are no longer the Don. You are not even a Romano."
I looked at the paper. I felt nothing.
Power? Status?
The things I once thought were my life now seemed like a joke.
I took the pen and signed without hesitation.
"Done." I handed the document back to him. "But I have one condition."
The old Don frowned. "You have the nerve to ask for conditions?"
I threw off the covers and stumbled out of bed. I knelt before him.
"Help me find Isabella."
The old Don stared, his expression turning to pure disgust.
"Are you insane? You'd throw away your dignity for that woman?"
"Please." I pressed my forehead to the floor. "Even if you have to tear New York apart, even if you have to use every secret contact... help me find her."
It was the first time in my life I had ever begged anyone.
For the woman I had personally destroyed.
The old Don stared at me for a long time, then let out a cold laugh.
"Lorenzo, you are a profound disappointment."
He turned and walked to the door, his back rigid.
"Stop looking."
His hand on the doorknob, he paused, not turning back.
"My network already checked."
My heart leaped into my throat. "Where is she?"
"All leads went cold after she left City Hall." The old Don's voice was like ice. "A lone woman, with no connections, completely vanishes from under our noses. There are only two possibilities."
I held my breath.
"One, she's dead. Her body is at the bottom of the Hudson River."
"Two, someone with serious power helped her disappear. Someone who could erase a person from the face of the earth without leaving a trace."
"Either way, the person known as Isabella Rossi has been erased from the world."
The door slammed shut.
The only sound in the room was my own ragged breathing.
Erased?
No. I don't believe it.
She hates me too much. She wouldn't just die.
She's out there somewhere, watching me suffer with cold eyes.
"Marco." I pulled myself up from the floor and ripped the IV from my hand. Blood dripped down my arm.
"Boss..." Marco tried to help me, but I pushed him away.
"Get the car." My eyes were wild. "If the family won't do it, I'll find her myself. I'll burn this city to the ground. I will tear Heaven and Hell apart. But I will find her!"