Chapter 88 The Mole

• Rome smelled the same. Damp stone and exhaust, basil and cigarette smoke lingering in the streets. Serena felt it the moment she stepped off the car and into the mansion, a strange knot in her chest. This mansion had been a place of punishment once, a place where Stefano had broken her and where Marco had pulled her out of the dark. To return now felt like walking into a memory she had tried to bury.
• But Stefano was not the man she remembered. When she saw him again, he was calm, composed, his anger buried beneath something quieter. His eyes no longer burned like fire but steadied on her with unsettling patience. That calm made her heart beat harder than rage ever had.
• She broke the silence first. “Why did you save me?” Her voice was sharp, but it trembled at the edges.