The moment Sofia stepped into the room, Amethyst knew this wouldn't end with all of them alive.
She stood between Sofia and the twins growing inside her. Gun drawn. Heart pounding.
But she wasn't the only one who knew.
Luciano did, too.
"Step back." His voice cut like a blade through glass.
Sofia didn't flinch. She just smiled at him.
"Well, if it isn't the man himself. I was hoping you'd join us. I never liked shooting people in the back."
Luciano's gun was already aimed at her, finger steady on the trigger.
"Let her go," he said, deadly calm.
Sofia turned slightly, gun still pointed at Amethyst's stomach.
"I didn't come here to play hostage games, Valeri. I came to take back the life she stole from me."
"I stole nothing from you," Amethyst spat.
Sofia's smile faltered — just slightly.
"You got out," she said coldly. "I stayed. I was sold to pigs and forgotten. But you? You married the monster. And now you're having his children."
A sharp click.
Sofia's finger curled around the trigger.
Luciano stepped forward. "You shoot her, you die."
"Maybe that's the point," she whispered.
—
Before either woman could react, Luciano lunged.
Gunfire exploded.
One shot — then another.
Sofia screamed as the impact threw her sideways, crashing into the dresser, blood blooming on her side.
But it wasn't over.
She pulled the trigger blindly — and the bullet hit Luciano.
Square in the stomach.
He stumbled, eyes wide in shock, then dropped to his knees.
"No—" Amethyst screamed, rushing forward, but a guard burst in through the second door and caught her just in time, pulling her away.
"Ma'am, we have to go—"
"Let me go!"
"He ordered me to get you out if anything went wrong—"
Luciano turned to her, blood staining his shirt.
"Take her," he rasped. "Get her out of here."
Amethyst reached for him, fighting the guard.
"I'm not leaving you—!"
But he was already looking at her like it was the last time.
With every ounce of strength, he said:
"You live. For them. For me."
The guard dragged her out of the room, her screams echoing down the hall.
Just before the doors slammed shut, she saw Luciano rise one final time, gun raised.
Then—
Bang.
Silence.
—
By the time the guards cleared the room, both Luciano Valeri and Sofia Lane were dead.
One with a bullet to the chest.
The other with a smile frozen on her face.
The king had fallen.
And the empire would never be the same.
—
In the days that followed, Amethyst didn't speak.
She sat alone in the nursery. The crib was still half-built. The names still unchosen. Her heart broken open like a war-torn city.
But her hands cradled her stomach.
And her eyes — hollow as they were — still burned with something deeper than grief.
Resolve.
Because Luciano had died saving her.
Saving them.
And now, his legacy was hers.