The library doors had barely closed behind Matteo when the room shifted again.
Victory was brief.
Oliver was already moving.
Phone in hand. Orders firing out with surgical speed.
"Lock all airports within our influence."
He walked toward the windows overlooking the Milan grounds.
"Freeze rail manifests. Border exits. Private marinas."
A pause.
"No leaks."
He ended one call and made another instantly.
Anna watched in silence for a moment.
This was power without performance.
No raised voice.
No wasted gesture.
Entire systems moved because he decided they would.
"Find Adrian Walker," he said into the next call. "And if Veronica is with him, keep her alive."
He disconnected.
Anna crossed her arms.
"You just ordered half a continent."
"Only the useful half."
"You're impossible."
"I'm efficient under pressure."
She stepped closer.
"You're terrifying under pressure."
He looked at her once.
"You're still here."
"As if fear was ever the issue."
Something darkly pleased flickered in his eyes.
Within minutes, the palazzo transformed into a command center.
Screens were brought in.
Maps lit up walls.
Legal teams, cyber teams, private intelligence, logistics heads—all appeared through secure calls.
Anna noticed something else.
No one questioned Oliver.
Not once.
They simply executed.
She leaned beside him at the central table.
"How many people work for you?"
"Yes," he replied.
She stared.
"That wasn't a number."
"It was accurate."
Despite the tension, she almost smiled.
Then a screen flashed red.
PRIVATE JET REQUEST FILED – BERGAMO AIRFIELD
Departure name: A. Walker
Oliver's expression chilled.
"Too obvious," Anna said.
"Agreed."
"Decoy?"
"Yes."
He turned to one of his intelligence directors.
"Track secondary movements within twenty kilometers. Cash vehicles, service convoys, medical transport."
The woman nodded instantly.
Anna blinked.
"You thought three moves ahead in five seconds."
"I thought one move ahead ten years ago."
There was something sharp beneath the line.
Old history.
Old wounds.
No time to ask.
Another alert sounded.
UNMARKED MEDICAL HELICOPTER CLEARED 14 MINUTES AGO
No patient filed.
No route logged after takeoff.
Oliver smiled.
Never a comforting sight.
"There you are."
An hour later, they stood on the rooftop helipad of the palazzo.
Wind whipped through Anna's hair as Oliver's own helicopter powered up.
"You are not coming," he said.
She stared at him.
"You've learned nothing."
"I've learned plenty. This part is dangerous."
"This entire marriage is dangerous."
"Anna."
"No."
He stepped close, voice lowered beneath rotor thunder.
"If Adrian is cornered, he becomes desperate."
"Then don't corner me by leaving me behind."
His jaw tightened.
Wrong woman to argue with publicly.
She softened just enough to be strategic.
"You said together."
He held her gaze.
Then exhaled once.
"Stay beside me. Follow instructions immediately."
She smiled faintly.
"That's the closest thing to romance you offer lately."
He took her waist, pulled her in once, and kissed her hard enough to silence further commentary.
When he released her, his eyes were dark.
"Board now."
She touched her lips, annoyed by her own pulse.
"Control issues."
"Later," he said, guiding her toward the cabin.
The helicopter cut across northern Italy under a steel-gray sky.
Below, mountains rose.
Ahead, one isolated private clinic sat hidden among trees.
Anna studied the tablet feed.
"Medical transport. Remote landing zone. False records."
"He needs treatment or secrecy," Oliver said.
"Maybe Veronica does."
"Maybe."
He looked out the window.
"Or maybe Adrian wants witnesses removed."
Anna glanced at him.
"You really are related."
He didn't deny it.
They landed hard.
Oliver's security team moved first.
Weapons drawn, perimeter tight.
The clinic looked expensive, discreet, and guilty.
Inside, halls were nearly empty.
Staff gone.
Rooms cleared.
One operating suite active.
They reached double doors just as a gunshot cracked from inside.
Oliver kicked the doors open.
Chaos froze.
Veronica stood bleeding from the shoulder beside an overturned tray.
Adrian held a pistol aimed at a doctor.
And in the hospital bed—
An older man on oxygen, weak but alive.
Oliver stopped dead.
For the first time since Anna met him, true shock broke through his control.
"Father."
Anna's breath caught.
He had been told his father was dead.
Adrian smiled thinly.
"Family reunions are emotional, aren't they?"
Everything Anna thought she understood shattered in one second.
Oliver's father was alive.
And Adrian had been hiding him the entire time.