STEFANO’S POV

The venom that coursed through my veins threatened to drown me, but I refused to succumb. I couldn’t. Not for myself, but for her. I would endure it. I had to. And yet, as the agony of my blood’s corruption clawed at my senses, she made a decision—one that shattered my heart.

I saw it. The golden thread, faint but undeniable, that linked us—the bond between our hearts. It shimmered with the same strength that had always defined her. But in a cruel instant, it snapped. The bond, the lifeline that tethered us together, was gone.

My eyes locked with Gianna’s—blue, pleading, and filled with a pain that...