Chapter 1 - Blood on the Shattered Glass
Ava Collins knew that survival in the Romano household depended on staying invisible.
She had spent two months carrying silver trays across polished marble floors without looking anyone in the eye.
The rules among the staff were spoken in quiet whispers behind heavy pantry doors.
Never linger near open doors.
Never ask about the armed men stationed at the gatehouse.
And above all, never cross the path of Nico Romano.
Nico was thirty-five years old and carried himself like a man who owned the air everyone else breathed.
He was taller than most men in the room, with short dark hair, sharp stubble, and cold eyes that never seemed to rest.
Beneath the crisp white cuff of his tailored black suit, dark ink curved up his wrist like a coiled serpent.
Nobody spoke his name loudly in this city.
Whenever Nico walked through a room, conversations halted, shoulders stiffened, and wealthy men lowered their heads.
Ava kept her distance, balancing a heavy tray of vintage champagne on her palm.
The charity gala had drawn hundreds of guests into the estate’s towering glass conservatory.
Outside, a cold autumn rain hammered against the reinforced glass dome above them.
Inside, string quartets played over the murmur of diamond-draped heiresses and venture capitalists.
Ava maneuvered through the crowd near the center fountain, waiting for her shift to end.
Nico stood barely ten feet away, surrounded by two councilmen and a private banker.
He wasn’t smiling.
He never smiled.
Then a sound cut through the swelling music.
It was high, faint, and metallic.
Like iron groaning under immense pressure.
Ava stopped in her tracks and lifted her gaze toward the vaulted iron trusses.
A heavy bronze and crystal chandelier hanging fifty feet overhead had tilted slightly to the left.
The primary steel mounting bracket had parted from the crossbeam.
It swung by a single corroded bolt.
Directly underneath the swinging mass of metal and crystal stood Nico Romano.
Ava didn't hesitate.
There was no time to calculate consequences or weigh the danger.
"Move!" Ava screamed.
The music faltered, but the guests were too slow to react.
Nico turned his head, his dark brows drawing together in annoyance at the interruption.
Ava dropped the silver tray.
Crystal glasses shattered against the floor in a shower of foaming champagne.
She sprinted across the polished floor, her flats slipping momentarily before finding grip.
She threw the entire weight of her body against Nico’s chest.
The force of her momentum slammed him off balance across the wet floor.
A deafening roar ripped through the conservatory.
The iron fixture ripped free from the ceiling and plummeted.
Hundreds of pounds of bronze, crystal, and jagged iron collided with the floor where Nico had stood a second before.
The impact sounded like a bomb detonating inside an echo chamber.
The blast wave of pulverized glass tore through the air.
A jagged shard caught Ava across her upper left shoulder, slashing deep through the fabric of her uniform.
Hot, blinding pain flared down her arm.
The world spun violently as she hit the floor beside him.
Dust and fine crystal powder drifted through the humid air.
Screams erupted from the terrified guests as security guards pulled their weapons.
Ava knelt on the floor, pressing her right hand against her bleeding shoulder, fighting for breath.
Her ears rang so loud she couldn't hear the chaos around them.
Then two large hands gripped her shoulders, hauling her upright.
Nico Romano looked down at her with ferocious, unyielding intensity.
His suit was covered in white stone dust, but his gaze was razor sharp.
"Why did you do that?" his voice tore through the ringing in her ears.
Ava looked up into his face.
For a fleeting second, the noise of the ballroom vanished entirely.
Her mind was violently dragged seven years into the past.
She saw a desolate highway in the middle of a torrential downpour.
She saw flashing red taillights reflected on wet black asphalt.
She remembered herself at nineteen, weeping with terror, hunted by men sent to collect her late father's debts.
She remembered a man stepping out of the shadows, tall and commanding, with the exact same eyes.
He had pulled her behind his broad frame without fear.
On his left hand, he wore a heavy silver signet ring engraved with a notched crest.
His deep voice had echoed over the rain: Stay behind me.
Ava pulled herself back to reality and stared at Nico's rigid jawline.
"I thought you were someone else," she breathed, her voice shaking from shock and loss of blood.
Nico’s eyes tightened, cold suspicion overtaking his initial shock.
"Who?" he demanded, his grip on her arms tightening.
The name slipped from her lips before she could build a defense.
"A man named Ethan."
Nico Romano froze instantly.
The color visibly drained from his face beneath his dark stubble.
The fierce hostility in his eyes gave way to a haunted, terrible recognition.
"Ethan Vale?" Nico whispered, his voice dangerously low.
Ava felt the floor tilt beneath her feet.
"You know him?" she asked.
Nico stared at her as if she were a ghost rising from an open grave.
"He was my older brother," Nico said, each word sounding like a hammer striking cold stone.
Ava shook her head in sheer bewilderment.
"He helped me once," she said, her voice cracking.
"That is impossible," Nico said flatly, his fingers pressing into her fabric.
"Why?" she asked.
Nico leaned in closer, his dark eyes burning into hers.
"Because Ethan died ten years ago in an explosion at Vale Harbor."
Ava’s breath hitched in her throat.
"No," she said, steadying her voice despite the throbbing agony in her arm.
"That can't be true."
Nico’s expression darkened.
"Why can't it be true, Ava?"
"Because Ethan Vale saved my life seven years ago," Ava said quietly.
"Three years after you buried him."
Nico stared at her, completely motionless amid the pandemonium of the conservatory.
Before he could speak, his chief of security, Marcus, knelt beside the twisted wreckage of the chandelier.
Marcus reached down with a gloved hand and picked up the broken support bracket.
"Boss," Marcus called out, his voice sharp and tense.
Nico looked over without releasing his hold on Ava.
"What is it, Marcus?"
Marcus held up the thick steel bolt for Nico to see.
"The threads didn't snap from wear."
Marcus turned the metal piece in the light.
"Someone unscrewed this bolt by hand and coated the threads in grease so it would slide silently."
Ava looked from the sheared bolt back to Nico’s pale face.
A cold realization settled deep inside her chest.
May you like
The man she had just saved was marked for execution.
And the brother Nico had mourned for a decade was walking among the living.
