Chapter 3

The nightmares never started with screams. They started with the smell of floor wax and the sound of a plastic playground ball bouncing against a chain-link fence.

I was seven. My hair was tied in two neat ribbons, and for the first time in my life, I had a secret. Her name was Mia. She liked the way I drew stars, and she didn't care that my last name ended in an 'o.'

We were sitting by the slides when the black sedan pulled up to the school gate. My father didn't get out. He didn't have to. He just rolled down the window, his cold eyes finding Mia—just a child—and lingering for three seconds too long.

The next day, Mia’s desk was empty.

I remember finding her in the hallway later, her eyes red and her hands shaking. "I can't talk to you, Krystel," she had whispered, backing away as if I were made of fire. "My daddy says if I play with you, his shop will burn down. He says you're... you're a curse."

The dream shifted, the playground dissolving into the sterile, dizzying heights of my high school rooftop.

The wind was howling. I was seventeen now, screaming at the girl standing on the ledge. Sarah. My only friend in a sea of paid acquaintances.

"Sarah, please! Just step down!"

"They won't stop, Krys," Sarah sobbed, her uniform fluttering in the gale. "Your brothers... they followed me home. They told my boyfriend they’d break his hands if he touched me. They told me I was 'property' of the Solovino brand. I just wanted to be a person, Krys. Not a project."

She didn't look back. She just let go.

The sound of her hitting the pavement wasn't a thud. It was a crack—the sound of my world shattering.

The scene flickered again, blurred by my own tears. I was back in the manor, my hands covered in Sarah’s blood, screaming at Dante, Luca, and Rocco. They stood there like statues, their faces masks of calm, "noble" concern.

"It’s your fault!" I shrieked, my voice breaking. "You killed her! You kill everything I touch!"

"We saved you, Krystel," Dante had said, his voice terrifyingly soft as he stepped forward to wipe a smudge of blood off my cheek. "She was a distraction. She was making you weak. We’re the only ones who will ever truly love you. We’re the only ones you need."

I woke up with a gasp, my lungs burning as if I’d been the one falling.

The silence of my bedroom was absolute, broken only by the hum of the air conditioning and the rhythmic, blue blink of the security system by my door. I was drenched in a cold sweat, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

I sat up, pulling my knees to my chest. My room was a masterpiece of silk and marble, but in the dark, the shadows of the bedposts looked like bars.

I looked at my hands. They were clean. No blood. No Sarah. No Mia.

But as I rubbed the gold snake ring on my finger, I felt the familiar, crushing weight of the Solovino Debt. My brothers hadn't just protected me; they had built a graveyard around me and called it a garden.

I wasn't a daughter or a sister. I was a relic in a tomb.

I checked the clock. 4:30 AM.

The house was still, but I knew they were out there. My brothers, patrolling the hallways of my life, making sure no one else ever got close enough to fall.

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