My father used to bring me to this chapel as a boy when there was a lesson to be learned. Lorenzo De La Rosa was not a soft man. He was a direct heir to a founding father of Imperium Valens Invictum. A Sovereign Son. Our society is a well-established organization rooted in powerful dynasties around the world. Some call us thieves in the night. A criminal syndicate. Mafia. The truth is much more intricate than any of those simplistic terms.

Our ancestors learned long ago there was power in secrecy. The legacy handed down to us was much more evolved than that of the criminals waging war on each other in the streets. We have money. We have power. And we are much more sophisticated than your average knee-breaking Italian mob boss.

IVI holds its members in the highest regard. With that power comes expectation. Education. Professionalism. And above all, discretion. By day, we appear as any other well-bred member of society. They don’t and never will know the way our organization operates.

From infancy, my father anointed me with this same great responsibility. He was a well-respected member of the upper echelon in our society, and he was determined that his children would be molded in his image, no matter the cost.

The cost won me many hard lessons over the years. Kneeling on hard marble flooring for hours. The bite of a leather strap against my skin. The sting of a wooden paddle. The repetition of prayers and the smothering guilt of repentance for never being quite…enough.

De La Rosas can’t afford to be soft. My father’s words still echo off the walls as my eyes drift over the photos of him and my brother Leandro hung on opposite sides of the altar. I have no doubt in my mind they would tell me the next steps are imminent and necessary. The only way to right the wrong of their deaths is to punish without mercy. Their blood is on Eli Moreno’s hands, and that motherfucker just had to go and get sick before I could squeeze every last wisp of his soul from his body.

My head dips as the force of my rage rises within me and blackens my vision. For four years, I’ve been waiting for this. Four years of countless surgeries and physical therapy. Endless anguish and grief have been my only companions in the darkness while I searched for answers to the truth.

Eli can’t take this away from me. His illness won’t be the easy way out. While he lays in that hospital bed, shriveling up and withering to nothing, I will destroy everything he ever loved. And if he should wake again, it will be to a horror even worse than death.