Prologue
Five Years Ago
The ballroom sparkled with crystal chandeliers and false smiles.
Aria Moreau stood in a white silk gown, her back straight, her jaw locked. She could feel every pair of eyes watching her—some envious, some curious, and too many waiting to see her crack. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Across the aisle stood him.
Dominic Virelli.
The cold-blooded heir to one of Europe’s most powerful crime syndicates. Impeccable in a tailored black suit, eyes like winter steel, unreadable. Untouchable.
A marriage born of blood and power. Negotiated behind closed doors by men who didn’t believe in love, only leverage.
They had shaken hands over whiskey and weapons.
And now here she was—offered like a pawn, wrapped in lace.
Their hands touched briefly during the exchange of vows. His skin was warm, hers ice. The silence between them louder than the priest’s voice.
No “I love you.” No smiles.
Just an alliance sealed with rings and ruin.
But what no one saw—what neither of them dared to admit—was the heat that flared in the silence. A gaze held a second too long. A breath caught. A war not of bullets, but of longing.
They called it a white marriage.
It was anything but.
Now.
Aria Moreau doesn’t exist anymore.
Now she’s Shade—Europe’s most elusive contract killer. No past, no fingerprints, no weaknesses.
Five years vanished into smoke and silence. She never looked back. Not until a new contract came in, coded and clean:
Target: Internal traitor
Client: D. Virelli
Reward: Highest-tier. Discretion required.
She almost laughed when she read the name. Almost.
Because now Dominic Virelli is the king of the underworld.
And he’s hiring her.
But he doesn’t know.
He doesn’t know the woman behind the mask.
He doesn’t know she was once his wife.
And she doesn’t know if she’s come back for vengeance…
…or to finish what they started.
