Location: Temporary Safehouse – Lower Manhattan
The warehouse was gone. Isabella stared at the smoke-streaked skyline from the window of the safehouse, arms crossed over her chest.
Gianna sat nearby, nursing a cut on her temple. "They knew everything. Entry points. Weak spots. That wasn't just intel—it was inside."
Isabella's lips pressed into a razor-thin line.
Nico.
She didn't want to believe it—but the timing, the silence, the name painted in ash… it wasn't coincidence.
She turned toward the door.
---
Location: Rooftop – A Few Blocks Away
Nico leaned against the ledge, tension running like wire under his skin. The city buzzed beneath him, oblivious to the noose tightening around his throat.
Then… footsteps.
He didn't turn.
"You always did like rooftops," a voice purred.
Allegra.
She emerged from the shadows like a ghost reborn—elegant, deadly, unchanged.
"You survived," Nico muttered.
She smiled. "Disappointed?"
"You sold out to Ricci. That's not surviving. That's rotting."
Allegra stepped closer, her gaze dangerous. "I told you once: love makes us weak. And you? You're drowning in it now."
She tossed a photo at his feet—Isabella, mid-stride, unaware she was being watched.
"Tell her the truth, Nico. Or I will."
---
Back at the Safehouse
Isabella paced the hallway outside Nico's room.
She hated the silence. Hated not knowing whether it was her paranoia… or her instincts that were right.
Inside, Nico sat on the bed, holding the photo Allegra gave him.
When Isabella opened the door, their eyes locked.
"Were you ever going to tell me?" she asked.
He didn't speak.
"I trusted you," she whispered. "I let you in."
Nico stood. "And I never lied. Not about her. Not about us."
"You lied by omission," she said, voice hardening.
"I tried to bury her," he said quietly. "But Allegra doesn't stay dead."
A beat.
"She's playing us both," he added. "But if Ricci sent her, he's making a mistake."
"Why?" Isabella asked.
"Because this time, I won't hesitate."
---
Final Scene – Ricci's Penthouse
Allegra stood before Costanzo, loading a silencer onto her pistol.
"Isabella's close to breaking," he said. "Nico will push her the rest of the way."
Allegra smiled faintly.
"You don't understand them at all," she said.
"Then enlighten me."
She looked out the window toward the dark horizon.
"They're not falling apart," Allegra whispered. "They're becoming something worse."
She snapped the pistol into place.
"A storm."