I thought the meeting with Roman would be the last of the ghosts I needed to face, but I was wrong. His presence had been softened by time, marked by regret but no longer sharp enough to wound. Yet Alessia lingered like a shadow at the edge of everything, a weight that had not lifted even after her empire began to collapse.

The message came quietly, not through headlines or investors but through a private channel. A short request, stripped of her usual flourish, asking if I would see her one ...