Luca Moretti had built his entire life around one belief.
That the past stayed buried.
That was how he survived.
He buried memories.
He buried pain.
He buried every part of himself that reminded him he was still capable of being hurt.
For years, he had accepted the losses he was given.
His mother.
Sofia.
The people he believed he failed to protect.
He turned grief into ambition.
Pain into power.
Loneliness into control.
But now, everything he thought he knew was breaking apart.
Because the dead were speaking.
And the past was refusing to stay silent.
Isabella noticed the change immediately.
She had become skilled at reading Luca.
Not because he was easy to understand.
He wasn't.
Luca was a man made of contradictions.
A man who could intimidate a room full of powerful people but struggle to admit when something hurt him.
A man who could make decisions without hesitation but freeze when it came to matters of the heart.
A man who claimed he needed nobody, yet held onto Isabella like she was the only thing keeping him connected to reality.
"You haven't slept."
Luca looked up from the documents scattered across the desk.
"I'm fine."
Isabella sighed.
"That's your favorite lie."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"You call everything I say a lie."
"Because most of the time you're hiding something."
He looked back at the papers.
And that silence told her everything.
"What did you find?"
For a moment, he didn't answer.
Then he pushed the documents toward her.
Isabella picked them up.
Her eyes moved across the pages.
Records.
Names.
Dates.
Evidence.
And one name appearing repeatedly.
His mother.
"She was investigating them," Isabella whispered.
Luca nodded.
"Yes."
"Your mother knew?"
"She knew something was wrong."
His voice became quieter.
"She tried to tell me."
Isabella looked at him.
"What happened?"
Luca leaned back.
"I ignored her."
The words were painful.
Not dramatic.
Not exaggerated.
Just painful.
"Why?"
"Because I was young."
A pause.
"And because I believed I understood the world."
Isabella sat beside him.
"And now?"
His eyes met hers.
"Now I realize she was trying to protect me."
That was the hardest part.
Not discovering the truth.
Discovering that someone he loved had been trying to save him while he was too blind to see it.
Isabella reached for his hand.
"You were a son, Luca."
His fingers tightened around hers.
"I was supposed to protect her."
"No."
Her voice was gentle.
"You were supposed to be protected by her."
The words affected him more than she expected.
Because nobody had ever told Luca that.
Nobody had ever reminded him that he was allowed to be someone's child.
Not a leader.
Not a protector.
Not a man carrying an empire.
Just Luca.
The two of them remained quiet for a while.
Then Isabella noticed something.
"You're angry."
"Yes."
"At your father?"
"Yes."
"At your mother?"
His expression changed.
"No."
She studied him.
"Then who?"
Luca looked at their joined hands.
"Myself."
The honesty hurt.
Because Isabella understood.
Luca had spent years blaming himself for things he never had control over.
And that was the darkness he carried.
Not just what others had done to him.
But what he believed he had failed to do.
That evening, Luca made an unexpected decision.
He canceled every meeting.
Every call.
Every responsibility.
Isabella looked surprised.
"What happened?"
He looked at her.
"Tonight belongs to us."
She smiled slightly.
"You're choosing normal?"
"Trying."
The word was almost unfamiliar coming from him.
Normal.
A simple thing.
But for Luca, it was something he had never truly experienced.
The 90-day journey had started with curiosity.
With two people exploring attraction and discovering each other.
But the deeper they went, the more they discovered something neither expected.
Desire wasn't only about wanting someone.
It was about trusting someone enough to reveal the parts of yourself you hated.
Luca had spent years hiding his scars.
But Isabella had never asked him to pretend they weren't there.
She only asked him to stop carrying them alone.
They spent the evening away from everything that represented Luca's empire.
No security discussions.
No enemies.
No family secrets.
Just them.
They talked about things they rarely discussed.
The future.
Dreams.
Fears.
The kind of life they would choose if nobody else had expectations of them.
"What would you do," Isabella asked, "if you weren't Luca Moretti?"
He looked amused.
"That's impossible."
"No."
She smiled.
"Try."
He thought for a moment.
And for once, he didn't give a powerful answer.
"I think I would travel."
She looked surprised.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Somewhere nobody knows my name."
The answer touched her.
Because she realized something.
Luca didn't want more power.
He wanted freedom.
"And you?"
He asked.
"What would you do?"
Isabella smiled.
"I would still be me."
"That's not an answer."
"It is."
She looked at him.
"I spent too much time trying to become who people expected me to be. I think I'd just want a life where I could breathe."
Luca looked at her quietly.
Then he said something that surprised her.
"You already breathe differently when you're with me."
She smiled.
"Is that your way of being romantic?"
"I'm not good at romance."
"No."
She laughed softly.
"You're really not."
"But I'm trying."
And that meant more than perfection.
Because Luca Moretti was a man who had never tried for anyone.
Until her.
Later that night, the calm was interrupted.
A message arrived.
Not from an unknown number.
From Sofia.
Luca opened it.
Only one sentence.
You finally found what your mother died protecting.
His expression changed.
Isabella immediately noticed.
"What?"
He handed her the phone.
She read it.
Her stomach tightened.
Because Sofia's message confirmed something.
His mother's disappearance was not an accident.
And whoever was behind it had been hiding the truth for years.
Another message appeared.
This time with a photograph.
A picture of Luca's mother.
Alive.
Years after the world believed she was gone.
Standing beside someone.
Someone Isabella recognized.
Her own father.
She looked at Luca.
Neither of them spoke.
Because the mystery had just become personal.
Their families were connected.
Their pasts were connected.
And now they had to face the most dangerous question of all.
Were they brought together by fate?
Or were they both chosen as pieces in someone else's game?
Luca stared at the photograph.
For the first time, he wasn't looking at the enemy.
He was looking at the possibility that everything that happened between him and Isabella had been planned long before they ever met.
And that thought terrified him more than any threat ever had.