Chapter 1

Giorgia Romano’s POV

The first thing I reached for every morning wasn’t my phone. It was the wooden box under my bed.

Six tiny glass bottles rested inside, each holding a different ingredient. Lavender oil. Crushed moon lilies. Sea salt was so fine it looked like powdered sugar. Dried silver moss. Ground pearl shell.

The last bottle held a thick blue liquid that shimmered whenever sunlight touched it. I picked it up. Barely enough remained to cover the bottom.

“No.”

Mama Elena would have been furious. She always told me to keep a spare. “You never know when you’ll need it, little bird.” I used to laugh whenever she said that. But now it’s no longer funny.

I measured everything carefully. Three drops of lavender oil. A pinch of moon lilies. Silver moss. Pearl shell. Then the blue liquid. One drop was all I could afford to use now.

The mixture darkened, then turned silver as I stirred it. A cool scent of rain and sea salt filled the room.

For a moment, my mind went somewhere else. I saw cold water and dark waves, and someone was shouting my name. I stopped stirring, but the image disappeared as quickly as it had come.

I had learned not to chase memories like that.

Mama Elena found me when I was a child. I had no family with me and no explanation for where I came from. The only thing I had was a name she said belonged to me. She never told me who my parents were.

When I was sixteen, I pushed her for answers. She went quiet for so long that I wished I hadn’t asked. Then she touched my cheek.

“Some answers are dangerous, little bird.”

Since then I have never asked again.

I finished mixing the balm and rubbed it behind my ears, across my throat, and along my collarbone. A gentle warmth settled around my neck and ears. The pressure I carried every day eased. I could finally breathe.

That was what the balm gave me. A chance to move through the world without being noticed for what I was.

Three batches left. Maybe four if I was careful.

I twisted my hair into a bun, put on plain glasses I didn’t need, and changed into the plain green dress I wore at the Valentino estate. High neckline. Long sleeves. Nothing that invited questions.

The Valentino estate was busier than usual when I arrived. Two guards stood outside instead of one. A black car was parked beside the entrance, and servants hurried across the courtyard carrying flowers and trays.

“What’s happening?” I asked a maid.

“Important guests are coming .” She lowered her voice. “ Remember to Keep your head down today.”

Inside, Mrs. Bianchi, the head housekeeper, handed me my schedule. “The children are not to come downstairs. Keep them away from the main hall.”

“What’s happening?”

“We have an important guest .” Her eyes moved toward the entrance. “That explains everything.”

She walked away before I could ask more. I headed upstairs.

Matteo spotted me before I reached the nursery and ran straight into me. “You’re going to break your neck one of these days.”

Sofia appeared with a stuffed rabbit tucked under her arm. “Matteo said you weren’t coming.”

“I said she was late.”

They started arguing. I smiled. For a few minutes, I forgot about everything happening downstairs: the guards, the strange cars, the nervous servants. I helped Sofia fix her rabbit’s torn ribbon while Matteo tried to convince me that his three legged horse drawing deserved a place in the ballroom.

“He’s a special horse.”

I laughed. “You’re not serious.”

Those moments mattered to me. When I was with them, I could forget about the balm under my bed. I could forget why Mama Elena had taught me to hide.

Then I heard an engine outside, deep and powerful. The children stopped talking. Matteo ran to the window.

“Another car!”

A black SUV passed through the gates. The courtyard changed the moment it arrived. Servants stopped moving. The guards straightened.

The driver’s door opened. A tall man dressed completely in black stepped out. He moved with a calm that made the people around him step aside. No one approached him. They simply cleared the path for him.

He lifted his head. Our eyes met.

My wrist started burning. I gasped and grabbed it. The balm. Heat spread under my skin, it was getting worse by the second. and the burning only grew stronger.

Why is this happening?

He was still watching me. I couldn’t hear anything downstairs anymore, only my own heartbeat. I stepped away from the window.

“Giorgia?” Sofia’s voice, behind me.

“Stay here. I forgot something.”

I didn’t wait for an answer. I moved toward the door, my hand pressed against my burning wrist. The balm had never reacted like this. Not once. And I had no idea what that man had to do with it.

I reached the corridor. Then I heard his voice from across the courtyard. It was low, calm, and certain.

“Who is that woman?”