NO ONE COULD APPROACH THE DYING MAFIA BOSS—UNTIL HIS GUARD DOG CHOSE A POOR NURSE.

By noon the following day, the estate was under absolute military lockdown.

Extra surveillance towers were erected along the stone walls, eighty additional enforcers patrolling the grounds with assault rifles. The Moretti family had officially declared war, realizing their internal strike had failed.

Inside the private medical suite, Clara finished tying off the last suture on Adrian’s chest. She had spent five hours re-stitching the arterial wall herself, refusing to let Dr. Sterling anywhere near the room.

Adrian sat quietly, watching her clean her surgical instruments.

"You should sleep," Clara said, setting her forceps into a tray of disinfectant. "Your body has been through two major traumas in forty-eight hours."

"I sleep when I'm dead," Adrian replied smoothly. He gestured toward a plush armchair near the window. "Sit down, Clara."

Clara hesitated, then sat down, resting her elbows on her knees. Titan immediately walked over, resting his heavy chin across her lap.

"My legal team has processed the paperwork," Adrian said, pulling a leather binder from his nightstand. "Your mother has been transferred to a private medical pavilion in Switzerland. The best neurological specialists in Europe are taking over her care."

Clara snapped her head up, her eyes wide with shock. "What? Switzerland? You can't just move my mother across the world!"

"She left two hours ago on my private medical jet," Adrian continued, his voice completely unbothered. "She is safe. She has a personal security detail, five-star accommodations, and guaranteed lifetime care paid through an offshore trust in your name."

"Why?" Clara demanded, standing up, her chest heaving with anger. "Why are you doing this? To keep me trapped here?"

"No," Adrian said, leaning forward, his dark eyes cutting through her rage. "To keep you safe. The Morettis know who saved me. They know a twenty-seven-year-old nurse disarmed their wire and kept me alive. In my world, anyone who helps Adrian Castellano becomes a target. If your mother stayed in State, Don Moretti would have used her to break you."

Clara felt the breath leave her lungs. The sheer reality of his world—a place where mothers were leverage and saving a life was a death sentence—hit her like a physical blow.

"So what happens to me now?" Clara asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Adrian stood up slowly, adjusting his black silk shirt over his chest bandage. He walked over to her, his long strides effortless despite his injuries. He stopped inches away from her, towering over her, his presence overwhelming.

"You have two choices, Clara," Adrian said softly. "Choice one: I give you five million dollars, a new identity, and a passport to anywhere in the world. You never see me, Titan, or your old life again."

Clara swallowed hard. "And choice two?"

Adrian reached out, his warm, rough hand gently lifting her chin so she had to look directly into his dark, piercing eyes.

"Choice two: You stay beside me. You become the Chief Medical Officer of the Castellano enterprise. You run my private facilities, you command my medical staff, and you stand at my side while I burn the Moretti family to the ground for what they tried to do in my home."

Clara stared at him, her heart pounding frantically against her ribs. She looked down at Titan, who gave her hand a gentle, warm lick. She looked at the man who held three states in his iron grip, yet had taken a sniper's bullet to shield her body on the floor.

"If I stay," Clara said, her voice dropping into a firm, unyielding tone, "I'm not your servant, Adrian. I don't take orders to hurt people, and I don't bow to your guards."