I didn’t plan on crossing paths with Valentino, not in a city full of louder dangers and brighter sins, but fate here has a habit of dragging you toward the exact person you should avoid. The first time I saw him, he wasn’t glamorous or terrifying—just impossibly hard to ignore, like a billboard that won’t stop flickering in the corner of your eye. Everyone seemed to know his name, whispered in equal parts fear and fascination, and before I even understood why, I found myself pulled into his orbit. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was stupidity. Or maybe Hell was bored and wanted a new joke. Either way, meeting him felt like the beginning of something I wasn’t ready to name—something that would change the way I moved through this place, whether I liked it or not.