Chapter 355

• VALENTINA
• ~•~
• I cupped his face with both hands, thumbs brushing the sweat and blood from his stubbled jaw. His skin burned with fever under my palms, but the contact grounded us both amid the chaos. “I can’t promise that,” I whispered, my voice trembling but fierce. “Not because I want our children in this world, Gustavo—but because I know you. You’re not just the man who built an empire on blood. You’re the one who’s been trying to tear it down for us. If you don’t make it… I’ll tell them the truth. All of it. The king and the father. The monster and the man who chose love. But I won’t run far away and pretend you never existed. They deserve to know the man who bled for them in these tunnels. The one who held Luca when the guns were firing. The one who made me believe in something better.”