ALDRICH’S POINT OF VIEW

I sat alone in my study, in the apartment I had purchased specifically for Leylla.

Leylla...

Leylla...

Leylla...

The lights were dim. The silence in the room felt suffocating. I appeared calm—perhaps too calm—but inside, pain churned like a slow, relentless storm. My chest ached. My thoughts were chaotic, refusing to rest.

I felt like a failure. A complete and utter failure—an emotion I had despised since childhood. I was a De'Lucca. In my world, failure was never an option.

I had failed once—my marriage. It had hurt, yes, but that was something never truly meant to last.

But this—Leylla—was not something I could afford to...