The knock came again…..
Soft, slow and too deliberate for an intruder, too familiar for a stranger.
Donato rose from the leather sofa, shoulders stiff, jaw tightened with a dread no one had ever seen him carry.
Luca and Romeo exchanged confused glances—because Donato Morano was a man who feared nothing. Not bullets, not death, not the ghosts of the family he had buried.
But this knock… It hollowed the room.
Alessia tightened her arms around herself, sensing something cold pressing through the air.
Daisy stood beside her, hands trembling lightly despite her effort to hide it.
The mansion suddenly felt too quiet, too breathless.
Donato reached the door.
His fingers brushed the handle—then he paused, whispering so quietly Luca almost missed it. "….it can't be."
But he opened the door anyway and there was nothing.
No footsteps, no shadow, no wind and no sign of life at all.
Just the long, silent hallway stretching into darkness.
