Chapter 2 – Her Return Was Never Meant To Be Gentle

• Cassian folded the paper and tucked it back into his coat.
• He had waited five years.
• He wouldn’t wait another five minutes.
• ---
• He stood still. The room was cold and silent, like it didn’t know how to breathe anymore. His hand stayed around the book like it might fall apart if he let go. Pages fanned open from where they’d landed.
• But he wasn’t reading.
• He was staring at a name.
• Anna Belgrano.
• The alias meant nothing.
• But the handwriting scrawled in the margins—
• That was her.
• Aveline.
• The woman he buried by staying quiet. The woman who once wore his ring.
• Now she was back. With a boy who had his eyes. And a stare that didn’t ask for mercy. No words. No tears. Just the kind of silence that used to haunt him.
• Cassian set the book down like it might bite.
• Then he looked at Giorgio, and his voice dropped low.
• “Find out who she really is. And if it’s her…”
• He didn’t finish.
• He didn’t need to.
• “Bring her back. Alive.”
• ---
• The city hadn’t changed. Rome was still dressed in gold and covered in blood. Pretty on the outside. Rotten underneath.
• Aveline leaned against the edge of an old church that now served as a command post. Her coat flared in the wind. Below her, her people moved fast and clean. Ordo Umbra. The kind of power that didn’t make noise. Just results.
• She lit a cigarette, didn’t smoke it. Just held it for the heat in her hand.
• The Viero estate glowed in the distance like it still thought it mattered.
• You left me to die, Cassian.
• Let’s see what happens when I decide to live.
• She didn’t come back to ask for anything. Not forgiveness. Not answers.
• She came to finish something.
• Her return wasn’t announced. She took out a shipping route in Trieste. Hit a bank account in Zurich. Let one name drop in the right place:
• The Widow.
• Not a person. A rumor. A signal.
• A name whispered low before men pulled their triggers.
• Let the myth grow. Let fear do the talking.
• So when it was time to move, there’d be no questions.
• ---
• She walked into the war room like she owned the ground. Her boots echoed on the old stone floor.
• “Status,” she said.
• Ezra didn’t blink. He pointed at the map glowing on the table.
• “Two warehouses down. One of Cassian’s accountants tagged in Marseille. We’ve got his location. We can move in three days.”
• Aveline shook her head. “No.”
• Ezra raised a brow. “Why not?”
• “I want him to feel it. Not all at once. Bit by bit.”
• “You want him to watch it crumble.”
• She didn’t answer. Didn’t have to.
• Her eyes scanned the map—routes, ports, networks. Everything Cassian once built.
• She didn’t hate him anymore.
• Hate was exhausting.
• He already took too much from her.
• Then she froze. Her eyes blurred for a second.
• Luc.
• Ezra noticed. “You sure about this?”
• “I trusted him once. That was the mistake. This isn’t.”
• He nodded, stepped back.
• She didn’t look at him. Just stared ahead.
• “Fear lasts longer than love.”
• ---
• Later, alone, she pulled out the pendant she always wore under her shirt.
• Warm.
• Too warm.
• The wards were cracking.
• She clenched it in her fist.
• The Council would come for Luc soon.
• Her son. The boy born from two bloodlines. Half Viero. Half something darker. The kind of lineage old families don’t speak of.
• She kept him safe. Away from vendettas. Away from syndicate games.
• But prophecy doesn’t care about safety.
• ---
• Back at the Viero estate, Cassian didn’t sleep.
• Didn’t even try.
• He sat in the archives, the book still in front of him. He didn’t turn the pages. Just stared.
• The name might be fake.
• But the notes in the margin weren’t.
• That was her handwriting. Her rhythm. Her codes.
• Aveline was alive.
• Not a memory. Not a dream.
• Real.
• And this time, she wasn’t a lover.
• She was a threat.
• He slid the book away.
• “Giorgio,” he said. “Trace her.”
• “We already did,” Giorgio replied.
• Cassian turned his head. “Prove it.”
• Giorgio gave a small nod. “And when we do?”
• Cassian stood. Voice flat.
• “Bring her back.”
• A beat.
• “Alive.”
• ---
• Across the city, Aveline stood in front of the apartment window. Not a home. Just a base.
• She didn’t believe in homes anymore.
• Luc was asleep in the next room, clutching the same stuffed bear from five years ago.
• He looked so much like Cassian it made her stomach turn.
• She went back to her files—intel from Geneva. Mining ops. Illicit accounts. Half of them already under her control.
• Cassian hadn’t noticed.
• She marked a file.
• You don’t know yet, Cassian. But I’ve already cut you off at the knees.
• You’re just still standing because you haven’t fallen.
• She moved to a hidden panel in the shelf. Opened a box.
• Inside—her wedding ring. Torn photographs. Letters.
• His letters.
• > “If the world turns against you, I’ll still be your sword.”
• She picked up a pen. Wrote under the line.
• You said that before you stabbed me first.
• ---
• Cassian's men brought new intel.
• Three nights. Three blackouts. Same pattern.
• He stood over the map of his territories.
• “This isn’t random,” he said.
• Giorgio nodded. “She’s hitting the places where you first started. The roots.”
• Cassian’s jaw tightened. “She’s not killing the empire. She’s erasing the past.”
• He looked out the glass.
• The city sparkled.
• But he knew better.
• “She didn’t come back for me. She came for the version of me I tried to forget.”
• ---
• At Ordo Umbra HQ, nine agents stood in a circle. No names. Just old scars and sharp focus.
• Ezra lit up the screen. Cassian’s private lake villa blinked into view.
• “Summit in two nights. Small security team. Six family heads. If we hit that meeting, the Viero future collapses.”
• Aveline stepped forward. “No blood. No bodies. Just disappearances.”
• One agent asked, “What if he’s there?”
• “Don’t touch him,” she said.
• “Why not?”
• She didn’t blink.
• “Because I want him to see me when it all falls.”
• ---
• The night before the mission, Aveline stayed up.
• Ezra knocked once. “Final plan?”
• She didn’t take it.
• Instead, she asked, “Why do you follow me?”
• Ezra didn’t hesitate. “Because before you, I was nothing. Now, they’re afraid of what I might do.”
• She nodded. “Then your silence is worth something.”
• He looked her in the eye. “You’re not just a name, Aveline. You’re the reckoning.”
• ---
• Bracciano. The night of the mission.
• Aveline moved like a memory through the villa. No alarms. No guards. No noise.
• She knew this place. Every room. Every mistake.
• She paused at the fireplace. A portrait hung above—Cassian. His father. Their empire.
• And in the corner—
• Her.
• Someone had painted her back in.
• She stepped closer.
• Then a voice behind her.
• “I never erased you.”
• She didn’t flinch.
• Cassian stood alone.
• Older. Harder. Tired in the eyes.
• His gaze dropped to the pendant around her neck.
• “So you still wear it.”
• She didn’t respond.
• Ezra’s voice crackled in her ear:
• > “Aveline. You need to go. Now.”
• > “It’s a trap.”
• Cassian didn’t move.
• Avel
• ine turned to leave—
• Too slow.
• Steel doors slammed shut.
• Darkness fell.
• Cassian didn’t say a word.
• But in his hand—
• A ribbon.
• The same one she wore the night she disappeared.
• Her voice was barely more than breath.
• “This was all your game?”
• Cassian looked down at the ribbon.
• Then met her eyes.
• And said nothing.