I grew up with four mafia heirs. At ten years old, we took the Omertà, a sacred blood oath, swearing to never abandon each other. For them, I had turned down prestigious recruitment offers from the Apex Commission in the North twice. That was, until a month ago, when the Family brought back Mia—the orphaned daughter of a loyal soldier who died for the Obsidian Syndicate. She had been stranded on the outside, suffering for years. To compensate for her tragic past, my four closest childhood friends changed completely. They grew increasingly cold toward me, yet showered Mia with endless care and affection. Even my fiancé, Lucian, the future Don, used his promise to marry me in the North to trick me into signing a transfer contract to the freezing wastelands. He did it all just to let Mia replace me and take my highly coveted, deeply secure seat in the elite tactical command. When I confronted them with the forged application, Lucian didn't even blink. Shielding Mia behind him, he confessed with chilling entitlement: "Since you've already seen it, I'll tell you the truth. Mia has suffered enough, and she would never survive the Northern winters. You are different, Sienna. You are strong. You can survive anything." The other three heirs immediately chimed in, accusing me of being too damn selfish. To appease Mia's crocodile tears, they even violently tore my room apart and permanently deleted all my childhood videos from the Family's encrypted servers—the only memories I had left of my dead parents. They assumed I loved them too much and was too soft-hearted to ever leave, no matter how much they wronged me. They thought they were just sending me North for a one-year training program, and that by winter break, I would come crawling back to them, begging for their attention. What they didn't know was that the contract I signed wasn't a standard exchange application, but a classified, five-year absolute severance agreement. This time, I was never coming back. Chapter 1 Looking at the four men standing in the opulent, cigar-smoke-filled VIP lounge of the Syndicate's casino, my heart felt like it was being ruthlessly crushed. Lucian, Dante, Silas, and Enzo. At ten years old, we had sliced our palms with a silver switchblade to take the Omertà. When our bleeding palms pressed together, we swore never to abandon each other. Enzo leaned weakly against the mahogany bar, guiltily averting his eyes to the floor, not daring to meet my stare. "Who forged the four fake applications to the Apex Commission?" I asked. "I did," Lucian answered without a single second of hesitation. "And the promise you made last month?" I asked, my voice terrifyingly hollow. "When you publicly swore that if I transferred North, you would accompany me and officially crown me as your Mafia Queen? Was that just part of the trap, too?" Lucian's jaw tightened. "You would never marry a man who left you alone in a rival territory. If I hadn't promised to go to the North with you, you would have never signed the preliminary transfer papers." He knew exactly how much I loved him. And he had weaponized that love just to clear my elite central command seat for Mia. Right on cue, Mia played the victim. Covering her face with her delicate hands to hide her crocodile tears, she trembled, "I... I'll go North. I can take Sienna's place in the freezing snow... I really don't want to cause any trouble for everyone." Dante immediately took a step forward, instinctively shielding her. The faint bulge of his shoulder holster was visible under his tailored jacket. He was the Obsidian Syndicate's future Chief Enforcer, built like an impenetrable tank—a human shield that used to belong solely to me. "You are not going anywhere, Mia," Dante growled, his voice rough. "This was a joint decision made by all of us. Sienna, stop being so damn selfish!" "But what about Sienna?" Mia's delicate shoulders shook in a display of feigned innocence. "She will be all alone so far away. She's going to be miserable." Lucian pulled out a silk handkerchief and gently wiped her face. "She can take care of herself. You've barely been back in the Family. Don't throw away your future over a moment of anger." I stood only a few steps away, watching the four of them gather around Mia to comfort her. They couldn't bear to send Mia to the freezing North to suffer, but they had absolutely no problem using a lie to deceive me into going there alone. Silas, the eternally calculating Consigliere heir, pushed up his wire-rimmed glasses. His voice was completely devoid of emotion, as clinical as a hitman calculating a bullet's trajectory rather than explaining a brutal betrayal. "Sienna, I admit the way we handled this wasn't completely honest. But the outcome benefits everyone. The Apex Commission is still the best tactical facility on the continent. With your grades, you will definitely succeed. You are only going there for training. You can still come back to the Obsidian Syndicate during breaks. We stay here with Mia, you go North, and no one's future gets hurt." "Except you completely trampled my right to choose into dust," I fired back. The room went still. Dante's expression darkened. "You already wanted to go to the Apex Commission. Their mentors contacted you twice. Every time you turned them down, you couldn't let it go. We just helped you make the decision." "Wanting to go somewhere and being tricked into signing a contract by the people you trust most are two different things," I said, the betrayal slicing into my chest like a blade. "You weren't helping me choose. You were just making sure my choice worked best for Mia's manipulative little game." I had wanted to go to the Apex Commission. My dead father was the Obsidian Syndicate's Chief Architect, and I grew up surrounded by his tactical blueprints. The Northern intelligence research had been my dream for ten years. But because I couldn't bear to leave them, I had turned the Northern mentors down twice. Now I realized how close I had come to wasting my entire life on four men who didn't give a damn about what I wanted. I turned to leave. Lucian immediately stepped into my path, firmly blocking the heavy mahogany doors. "Where are you going?" "Home." "Sienna, don't say things you'll regret just because you're angry. I admit I lied about marrying you in the North because I needed your signature, but that doesn't mean my feelings for you are fake." He frowned, as if offering me an incredibly generous compromise. "I can keep dating you until your term starts. And when I have time, I'll visit you at the Apex Commission. You've always wanted to be with me, and now I've agreed. What else are you unhappy about?" Mia sniffled from safely behind Dante's back, speaking softly in his defense. "Sienna, Lucian really does care about you. When you fell asleep on the couch last night, he even covered you with a blanket. You really should be grateful." I almost laughed out loud. I had almost sacrificed my entire future for them, and she thought a blanket could offset all of that. I looked at the sickening scene before me—his hypocritical charity and her feigned kindness. They were a perfect match. "Since you all care for each other so deeply," I said softly, my voice devoid of any ripples, "then I hope the five of you stay tied together forever." I reached up to the nape of my neck and unclasped the heavy moonstone pendant. Carved side by side into the silver crest were five clumsy childhood initials. We had made it with our own hands the day we took our blood oath at ten years old. "Haven't you always cried about not being part of our childhood?" I placed the necklace on the casino table right in front of Mia. "You can have this, too." Mia hesitated for a moment before reaching for it. Lucian's brow furrowed deeply. "What the hell is wrong with you today? Didn't you always say we would never separate?" "That was before." I stepped around him and walked out the door. As I walked down the dimly lit corridor, past the heavily armed guards, the encrypted phone hidden in my pocket vibrated. [The Apex Commission's military-grade extraction vehicle will arrive in Obsidian territory in forty-eight hours.] [Once you confirm early entry into the Five-Year Classified Architect Program, your Syndicate transfer will begin simultaneously.] [Upon completion of the transfer, all ties and biometric clearances connecting you to your former Family will be permanently severed.] [Confirm?] I stared down at the cold text on the screen, a chilling, mocking smile curving my lips. They had no idea. The Apex Commission wasn't merely an academy. Its Architect division operated a classified military intelligence facility. Ordinary students attended classes normally and could go home during the winter holidays. But classified Architects were different. We were required to transfer our absolute loyalty to the North. For five years, we could neither quit nor have any contact with the outside world. I pressed 'Confirm'. This time, they were going to lose me for good.

Before I left the Obsidian Syndicate, I needed to return everything that belonged to them. The underground training facility reeked of stale sweat and old iron. I walked past the bloodstained canvas of the sparring rings until I found Dante. He was sitting on the mat, surrounded by scattered screws and wooden planks. He was painstakingly building a custom dorm bed for Mia. I pulled the heavy gold medal from my pocket, its weight a sudden anchor in my palm. It was from his first underground death match. He had been only twelve. Covered in blood, he had run across the arena, shoved it into my trembling hands, and told me I was the most important person in his life. I held the medal out to him in silence. Dante glanced up, his brow furrowing in immediate annoyance. "What is that?" "Your medal," I said, my voice deadpan. "I'm giving it back." Dante rolled his eyes. He snatched the gold from my hand and carelessly tossed it over his broad shoulder. It hit a metal hardware box with a loud, hollow clank, bouncing among rusty nails and loose wrenches like a piece of worthless scrap. "Stop throwing a childish tantrum, Sienna," he muttered, already turning back to his screws. "Grab that heavy box over there and help Mia move her stuff into the new room." "No," I said. Dante froze, his grip tightening on his screwdriver. He looked at me, his face turning a dangerous shade of red. "Excuse me?" "I am not helping you, and I am not helping her." Without waiting for his explosive reaction, I turned around and walked out of the gym, leaving him in the dust. My next stop was the Syndicate archives, buried deep beneath the estate. Silas was sitting at the massive oak table, meticulously reviewing blackmail files. I dropped a heavy stack of illicit operation blueprints and tactical ledgers directly onto his desk. Silas slowly raised his eyes to the stack. "What is this?" "Your work," I said, meeting his cold stare. "I organized and archived everything. I am done doing it for you." Silas picked up a ledger, his expression unreadable as he studied my face. "This is an unusual behavioral pattern for you, Sienna. But if you think this pathetic silent treatment will change our minds about sending you to the North, you are wasting your energy." Before I could reply, Mia walked into the archives, clutching a course catalog to her chest. "Silas, can you help me pick my classes? I'm so confused." Silas immediately dropped the ledger as if it burned him. He stood up and pulled a chair out for Mia, his cold demeanor instantly melting into absolute gentleness. "Do not put up a pointless fight, Sienna," he said, not even bothering to look back at me. "Just accept the arrangement." I left the archives without another word. As I walked out of the estate gates, Enzo blocked my path, a looming shadow in the afternoon sun. He shoved a thick, encrypted hard drive hard against my chest. I had to grab it instinctively to stop it from hitting the ground. "Take this," Enzo demanded. As the future Head of Interrogation, he was always aggressive, always invading personal space. "It has eighteen years of our home videos. Make a montage for Mia's eighteenth birthday party tomorrow." I looked down at the cold metal of the drive, my stomach twisting. "Edit out all your own footage," Enzo ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Replace your parts with Mia's photos. Make it look like she was always here with us." "I will not erase my own childhood," I said, my voice trembling with a quiet fury, and pushed the drive back toward him. Enzo completely ignored my hand. He turned around and walked toward the garage, already dismissing my existence. "Have it done by tomorrow morning!" he yelled over his shoulder. That night, Lucian took me to the old mob-front restaurant. Two years ago, it was in this exact spot that he had given me his promise ring. We sat in the dimly lit back booth, but the romantic atmosphere was dead. Lucian spent the entire appetizer course texting on his phone. The bright light of the screen reflected Mia's name in his dark eyes. Slowly, I took off the black diamond ring. I placed it on the pristine white tablecloth and slid it across until it rested by his water glass. Lucian finally looked up from his screen. He saw the ring, but instead of panic, he let out a heavy sigh and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "I will put that back on your finger when you return to the Family for winter break," he said. He sounded utterly bored by my display. "You will calm down by then. The five of us will come up North and take you out to dinner." I did not say a single word in response. I left the restaurant, went straight home, and plugged Enzo's hard drive into my computer. In the dead silence of my room, I backed up every single raw video file to my private, highly encrypted cloud server. Then, with a final sense of closure, I left the original drive sitting on the desk, completely untouched.

The next morning, when I stepped into the academy archives to collect my graduation files, the place was deadly silent. I walked down the narrow stairwell, holding the vintage camera my father had left me before he died. My fingers traced its worn leather grip, seeking a sliver of comfort. A group of girls blocked the bottom of the stairs. They were the daughters of Capos and Soldiers—Mia's new entourage. The tallest girl stepped forward and violently snatched the strap of my camera. "Look at the former Mafia Queen," she sneered loudly. "Parading around for years just to get tossed aside by Lucian the second Mia showed up." I held onto the camera tightly, my knuckles turning white. "Let go." At the other end of the corridor, Lucian, Dante, Silas, and Enzo were walking with Mia. They stopped dead in their tracks. Lucian watched the girls corner me. He watched them roughly yank on my dead father's camera. But he did absolutely nothing. Mia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh no, we should stop them." She took a step forward, her wide eyes a perfect mask of feigned concern. Lucian immediately put his arm out, instinctively shielding Mia as if I were the threat. He strode toward the stairwell, his presence radiating an oppressive demand for absolute obedience. The girls let go of my camera and stepped back, looking at him with reverent respect. Lucian looked at me. His eyes were glacial. "Stop causing trouble in the hallways, Sienna," he commanded, his voice dripping with disappointment. "Do not take your resentment out on Mia. Go home and change your clothes." I walked past him without a single word, my spine ramrod straight. The chill in my heart had finally frozen into solid ice. An hour after I returned to my house, counting down the minutes until my departure, the front door was violently crashed open. The wood splintered around the lock, showering the entryway in jagged debris. The four heirs stalked in, escorting Mia as if she were a fragile princess. Dante marched straight up to me. "Where is it?" he yelled. "Where is what?" I asked, keeping my voice dangerously level. "Mia's moonstone pendant," Dante demanded. "The one she lost today. You stole it because you're jealous." Enzo stepped forward, his jaw tight. "Stop lying. We know you took it to get back at her." They didn't give me a chance to answer. Dante and Silas pushed past me and started tearing my living room apart like ruthless thugs. They kicked over chairs and dumped out drawers, leaving a trail of senseless destruction before marching into my private bedroom. I followed them silently. My closet was completely empty. My suitcases were already packed and sitting by the door. Silas glanced at the suitcases. He let out a short, mocking laugh. "Staging a dramatic exit to beg for attention? That is pathetic, Sienna." Mia stood near my computer desk. I watched her slip her hand into her sleeve, her movements carefully calculated. She pulled out the silver moonstone pendant and quietly dropped it into the dark crevice between the desk and the wall. "Oh!" Mia cried out. She reached into the crevice and pulled out the necklace. She held it up, calculated tears filling her eyes. "I found it!" Mia picked up the moonstone and looked at me, her eyes slowly turning red. "Sienna, if you regretted giving it to me, you could have just said so. I would have given it back. You didn't need to steal it and make everyone search for it." "That is what you just put there yourself," I said coldly. Her tears instantly fell. Lucian stepped in front of her without hesitation. He clearly had no intention of asking whether I was telling the truth. I was about to kick them out again when Mia's gaze flicked over his shoulder, landing on my still-lit computer screen. Enzo's hard drive was still connected. Eighteen years of our shared memories were open on the screen. "Can I use these in my eighteenth birthday video?" Mia asked timidly. "No." I shut the laptop. Dante immediately stepped in front of me like a wall. "Enzo already gave you the hard drive," Dante said. Mia lowered her eyes, her voice broken. "Forget it. I don't want you guys fighting because of me again." She turned, pretending she was about to leave. Lucian's expression darkened instantly. He reopened the laptop and snatched the mouse from my hand. "If you don't want to be in the video, then delete your own parts," Lucian said coldly. "Don't touch my things." I reached out to grab the mouse back. Before I could stop him, Enzo grabbed my arms, forcefully twisting them behind my back. His grip was brutal, his large fingers digging mercilessly into my flesh, instantly leaving a patch of terrifying bruises on my pale wrists. "These are just a few videos. Don't force us to get physical," Enzo warned, his voice laced with cruelty. Lucian completely ignored me. He selected every clip that had me in it—every single memory I had left of my dead parents—and pressed the delete key. And then, without a second thought, he emptied the trash bin. "From now on, you are erased from this Family. You will never appear in any of the Obsidian Syndicate's memorial videos again," Lucian threatened. He yanked the hard drive out and threw it hard against my chest. "Finish editing the rest tonight." Then he turned and walked out of my bedroom with Mia. He thought that threat would scare me. He thought in an hour, I would be obediently doing his bidding. After they left, the phone in my pocket vibrated. [The Apex Commission's armored extraction vehicle will arrive in one hour.] I tightened my grip on the handle of my suitcase. They thought they had just won another argument. They thought they had successfully put me in my place. They had absolutely no idea that the countdown to losing me forever had already begun.