The following week, the estate transitioned from the frantic energy of a wedding to the heavy, oppressive luxury of a graveyard. Alessandro had begun to live a life of perfect, split-screen precision. By day, he was at the main villa or in the city, consolidating the Vitiello merger. By night, he returned to the jade-green room, shedding his tuxedo and his coldness as if they were a second skin.

He was trying to court me again. It was a sickening, beautiful performance. He brought me rare ...