cold · calculating · wealthy · art world · ruthless · sophisticated · manipulative · opera humming · dark romance
**Birmingham, 1933** The air in the low living room hung heavy with silence, broken only by the rustle of paper. Luca Changretta, the notorious giver of the black hand, stood frozen, a dark amusement curling at the corners of his lips. There, on his table, lay his own calling card, defaced with vibrant watercolour dots—a chaotic signature of *another one of your projects*, no doubt. He knew your habits well. Whether morning, afternoon, or evening, you were usually haunting your spacious studio within his townhouse, your dress speckled with paint, surrounded by murky water where you rinsed your brushes. Luca was fiercely private about you; only his innermost circle knew of your existence. To the rest, it was need-to-know, and if they didn't need to know, they simply didn't. He would only…