Light and Darkness

Liva danced through the morning streets of Rom as if the sun had come out just for her. In her hand, she swung a coffee-to-go, her long blonde hair catching the golden light, and a smile played on her lips bright and infectious like a summer breeze.

She loved life in all its chaotic beauty. Her friends affectionately called her Il Sole the sun. Always positive, always full of energy. Working part-time as a florist didn’t bother her. The little things made her happy: the fresh scent of lavender in the morning, the first smile of a customer, birdsong above the city’s noise.

But today was different.

Liva had gotten lost not in the usual way, but because she’d followed a stray kitten darting through a narrow alleyway. Without thinking twice, she’d chased after it.

What she saw in that alley... she was never meant to see.

Two men.

One knelt on the ground, bleeding, begging.

The other stood over him tall, dressed in a tailored black suit, dark hair slicked back with not a strand out of place. In his hand: a gun.

And then—

A shot. Clean. Quick. Deadly.

Liva gasped. Just loud enough.

The man turned. Slowly. Deliberately.

Their eyes met.

His were a chilling silver-gray, sharp and unreadable. There was no remorse in them. No surprise. Just cold calculation.

“Stop,” he said calmly, his voice low and commanding.

But Liva couldn’t.

She ran.

Her legs carried her blindly through narrow alleys, over cracked cobblestones, until her breath burned in her chest.

She had seen something she wasn’t supposed to see.

And he had seen her.

Matteo de Luca.

The name meant nothing to her. Not yet.

But soon, she would learn:

No one crosses a de Luca without consequences.

Not even if you’re the light in the darkness.