Luciano stood at the edge of the grand Moretti estate, smoke curling from his cigar, heart stone-cold.
Simon stepped beside him.
> "She's back."
Luciano didn't look up. "Grace?"
Simon hesitated.
> "She's saying she is."
That made Luciano move.
---
Inside, the woman sitting in the rosewood chair wore Grace's face.
Her smile. Her voice.
Even her scar—the small one on her left shoulder from a childhood fall.
But something was off.
Too calm.
Too rehearsed.
Too dangerous.
Luciano stared at her.
> "Tell me something only my Grace would know."
She smiled and crossed her legs slowly.
> "You like your whisky neat, your shirts black, and your secrets buried so deep you've forgotten which ones are real."
Luciano's jaw clenched.
It was true.
But still…
He didn't trust her.
Not yet.
---
In a warehouse near Naples…
The real Grace watched from behind a crate as two men beat a woman unconscious.
The woman wore her stolen identity. Her clothes. Her name.
> "The Decoy Project," the taller man muttered. "She lasted longer than the last one."
Grace bit down on her scream.
They weren't just replacing her.
They were testing replacements.
Molding women to become her.
To enter Luciano's world.
To destroy it from the inside.
---
Back in Rome, Luciano let the imposter sit in his home.
Let her wear Grace's perfume.
Touch his arm.
Whisper secrets into the crook of his neck.
But at midnight, he drugged her tea.
And while she slept…
He cut a lock of her hair.
For testing.
Because deep down, Luciano already knew:
> "Grace isn't the one pretending to be someone else.
She's the one they've been trying to erase."
And that meant one thing:
> She was more powerful than he ever realized.
---