Chapter 8: Fixation

Alessandro stared at the screen without blinking.

He had summoned Marco in the middle of the night. His right-hand man, silent as a shadow, had just handed him a file.

— Here’s everything we could find on her.

Hope Jones.

Twenty-six. Orphan. Brilliant doctor. No ties to the mafia.

Clean. Untouchable. Irreproachable.

And yet… he could feel her.

He’d seen the way she looked at him that night.

And the way she ran afterward.

But that wasn’t what made his jaw tighten.

It was the other man.

The one she’d clung to. The one he had taken for a lover. A rival.

He flipped a page of the file.

Lorenzo Castellani.

Fashion designer. Manhattan resident. Extremely close to Hope since they were fifteen.

Openly gay. Engaged. Harmless.

A pause. Then a thin smile.

He rose slowly and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the sea. His reflection in the glass was black, stormy.

— She lied to me.

Marco barely raised an eyebrow.

— She didn’t lie. She played.

Alessandro closed his eyes. He hated games… except when he was the one setting the rules.

— She tested me.

A pause.

— And she got away.

He inhaled slowly. He didn’t like what he was feeling. It wasn’t jealousy. It was worse.

She had left a mark on him.

And now he wanted her to do it again.

But this time… on his terms.

— Find me a reason to see her without it looking suspicious. An emergency. A pretext. Anything.

Marco nodded. No further explanation needed.

He knew.

Alessandro Romano wanted this woman.

And there would be no going back.