episode 1 - the past

On a rainy day

​At St. Jude’s Home for the Forgotten, the air always smelled of damp stone and boiled cabbage. It was a place where children learned early that silence was the only true shield.

In the cramped, dimly lit basement ward, eight-year-old Nico De Viole stood like a wall in front of his younger sister, Lea.

His knuckles were raw, split from a fight with an older boy who had tried to steal Lea’s meager ration of bread. Nico had won, as he always did, possessing a stubborn, unyielding strength that seemed impossible for a boy his age. Behind him, ten-year-old Lea De Viole stood in the shadows. She wasn’t crying. She never cried. While Nico was a fortress of muscle and bruises, Lea was something else entirely. Her dark eyes reflected the void of the room, tracking things the other children couldn't see. She didn't flinch at the damp or the cold. There was an unnatural stillness to her—a quiet darkness that didn't belong in a child.

The heavy door opened as two men in suits entered, their shoes clicked with terrifying precision against the concrete. The older man, a figure with silver-streaked hair and eyes like flint, stopped in front of the siblings.

The silver-haired old man knelt down looking at Nico and then straight into Lea’s pitch-black gaze. For a second, a dangerous smile touched the man's lips. He didn't see two orphans to pity. He saw weapons waiting to be forged.

"What are your names?" the man asked, his voice a low, gravelly purr.

"Nico" the boy says as he stepped closer to cover his sister "And she's Lea. We stay together"

The man stood up. He didn't offer a hand, he simply turned back toward the stairs. "Pack nothing. You won't need anything from this place where we are going"

Thousands of miles away, across the Atlantic, thirteen-year-old Ari Velerio Rhys stood on the pristine Italian marble floor of the Skyline Corp.'s headquarters.

Ari’s hair was combed precisely to the side, and he wore a miniature bespoke suit that matched his father's.

"Look out there, Ari," his father, the CEO of Skyline Corp. said, pointing a manicured finger toward the sprawling skyline. "Everything the light touches is measured in numbers. Stock options, real estate, legacy. You do not fight with your fists. You fight with your mind. You win with a pen."

Ari nodded, his posture rigid and respectful.

He had been trained since he could walk to inherit this empire. His life was a calculated sequence of chess lessons, tutors, and corporate etiquette.

He didn't know what a bruise felt like, his world was an endless expanse of wealth, catering nannies, and every material luxury he could ever ask for—except freedom.

​He was never allowed to leave the estate alone. Ari’s world was remarkably small. He didn't have friends his own age to run through the streets with. Most days, when his father was away on weeks-long international business trips, the massive mansion felt less like a home and more like a cage.

"Do you understand your purpose, Ari?" his father asks.

"To protect the legacy, Father," Ari replied, his voice clear, polished.

His father smiled, patting his shoulder. "Good. A Rhys never gets his hands dirty."

While the golden heir was being raised in the light, taught that power was built on balance sheets and clean hands. In the hidden, brutal training grounds of Italy, two orphans were being introduced to a nameless, shadow syndicate that ruled the underworld with blood and silence.

They were complete strangers, existing on opposite ends of reality. The billionaire boy who owned the sky, and the ghost girl who was about to conquer the dark.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***