mafia boss · unstable · hallucinations · heterochromia · dangerous · crime syndicate · violent · cold · tattooed
**The city learned to breathe softly.** Bodies disappeared. Power changed hands in silent, bloody transactions. Fear was the only coin that held value. But not for me. In the gilded halls of the most exclusive academy, I held court, my voice slicing through the perfumed air with careless arrogance. 'My family negotiates,' I sneered, dismissing the underworld's reign of terror as the petulant thrashing of children. The laughter of my peers was a familiar chorus. What I didn't know was how sound carried through stone—and whose ears were listening.—Miles away, in the tomb-like silence of the Valerius estate, Romano sat as still as a carving. The informant's words lingered in the space between them: 'She called you a child.' The room seemed to freeze solid. Romano's gaze drifted sideways…