<p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)"><em>**This is the start of a series. It may contain triggers and ends on a cliffhanger.**</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">This empire is built on the bones of our enemies,&nbsp;</strong></p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">surrounded by shadows that hide our twisted deeds and quiet wealth.&nbsp;</strong></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)"><em>Sienna</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">After a decade, what remained was a lone pendant and a shattered heart.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">If not for the photo, I'd think he was a ghost.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">With no other choice, I redefined my life, mending the broken pieces.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">But like all things that haunt us, he's back, engulfing my once simple life into a raging storm surrounded by crime and bloodshed.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">The trouble he brings is more than just his secrets; it's the weakness he brings out of me.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">But just one taste can't hurt, can it?</strong></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)"><em>Elio</em></strong></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">My existence is tangled with darkness and mayhem, where we live by a code</span></p><p class="ql-align-center"><em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">-family, power, loyalty, and protection.</em></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">Until her.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">She was the light.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">And I left.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">Everything I've done has been to protect her.&nbsp;</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">She resists our connection, consumed by the betrayals of the past.</span></p><p><br></p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">Too bad. I refuse to stop until she becomes mine again.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p></p><p><br></p>