When Dante and the Santori brothers finally left, Pavani let out a shaky breath, her heart pounding in her chest.

She watched through the window as Dante stepped into a sleek black car, his movements as fluid and confident as his presence. He didn’t glance back, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew she was watching him.

As the car pulled away, Pavani leaned against the counter, her fingers gripping the edge for support.

She couldn’t afford this—not the attention, not the lingering heat of his gaze, and certainly not the questions he stirred in her mind.

But her carefully constructed walls, the ones she had built to keep her past at bay, felt dangerously close to crumbling.

And Dante, now seated in the back of his car, swirled the last of his whiskey from the meeting in a crystal glass. His thoughts weren’t on the deal he had just secured or the Santori brothers' groveling.

No, his thoughts were on her.

The waitress with the defiance in her eyes and the hesitation in her voice. He didn’t know her name, didn’t know her story. But something about her was different. She wasn’t just another face in the crowd.

And Dante De Luca always got what he wanted.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

The room was dimly lit, heavy curtains drawn to block the harsh midday sun. Ravi Rai, the formidable head of the Rai crime syndicate, sat behind a grand mahogany desk, his fingers tapping a restless rhythm on its polished surface. He scowled, holding the phone to his ear.

"Any progress?" his voice was sharp, carrying the weight of authority.

On the other end of the line, his son, Aditya Rai, kept his tone measured, though tension crackled beneath it. "No, Papa. She's careful—no transactions, no phone activity to trace. But I’ve narrowed her location. She’s somewhere in Dante De Luca's territory."

Ravi’s face darkened at the mention of Dante's name. “De Luca,” he hissed. “Of all places, she had to run into his backyard.” His fist clenched against the desk. “If that man finds out who she is before we do, it could undo everything.”

Aditya hesitated for a moment before responding. “It’s why I’m here. No one knows me as a Rai—I’ve gone undercover as Detective Aditya Malhotra. I’ll find her before anyone else does.”

There was a long silence, the kind that Aditya had grown used to. Ravi finally spoke, his tone low and menacing. “Good. Bring her back. I don’t care what it takes. If she resists...” He let the unspoken threat hang in the air.

Before Aditya could reply, the door to Ravi’s study creaked open. Maya Rai, Alessandra’s mother, stepped in hesitantly, clutching a delicate shawl around her shoulders.

“Ravi, have you heard anything about Alessandra?” she asked softly, her voice tinged with worry.

“Not now, Maya,” Ravi snapped, not bothering to look at her.

Maya stepped closer, undeterred. “She’s our daughter, Ravi. She’s alone out there. We don’t even know if she’s safe—”

“I said, not now!” Ravi’s voice thundered through the room. Maya flinched but didn’t back down entirely.

“She ran because she was suffocating in this life,” she murmured, barely loud enough for Aditya to hear through the phone.

Ravi turned on her, his eyes flashing with anger. “She ran because she’s selfish and foolish. She doesn’t understand the consequences of her actions. Everything I’ve built—everything—was for this family, for her future. And she threw it all away.”

Maya’s lips pressed into a thin line as she blinked back tears. Without another word, she left the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Aditya, still listening on the line, exhaled quietly. “Papa, this anger… it’s what drove her away.”

Ravi’s voice dropped, quiet but lethal. “She’ll come to understand soon enough. You will bring her back, Aditya. And no one in De Luca’s circle will know a thing. If you have to deal with him, do it carefully. I won’t risk a war over her.”

“Yes, Papa,” Aditya replied, though a flicker of doubt crossed his mind.