"Stop the emotional blackmail," Victor warned coldly through the comms. Trapped in a besieged safe house and hemorrhaging from premature labor, Cora realized her husband had abandoned her. Trusting Isabella's lies, Victor sent his helicopters to evacuate his vault's core data instead of a medical team. As mobsters breached the building, Cora dug a hidden microchip from her locket, activating the Scarpia syndicate's highest distress code. Heavy-armed rescue obliterated the siege, but this desperate choice carried an irreversible price. The delay proved fatal, and Cora watched in agony as her premature twins, Leo and Dante, died, permanently freezing her heart. Five years later, a bankrupt Victor kneels in Geneva to beg the ruthless Queen of Ashes for an alliance. He expects a powerful stranger, completely unaware the syndicate monarch is the wife he left to die.