Morning sunlight spilled across the calm waters of Lake Como.
The Valentino estate looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Inside the security command room, dozens of monitors lit the walls. Every camera across the estate streamed live footage.
Guards.
Gates.
Perimeter sensors.
Everything normal.
Luca leaned over the central console, scanning the system reports.
"Nothing unusual," he muttered.
Ares stood behind him, arms folded.
He didn't trust "normal."
Not after the message from the mysterious watcher.
Someone had been observing them for two years.
People who waited that long never made careless moves.
Elara entered the room quietly.
She had been awake for hours already.
Her gaze moved across the screens.
"You're expecting something," she said.
Ares looked at her.
"I always am."
Before she could reply—
An alarm suddenly screamed across the system.
The monitors flashed red.
Luca straightened instantly.
"What the—"
Lines of code began racing across the screens.
Unauthorized access detected.
Ares' voice turned cold.
"Report."
Luca's fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard.
"Someone is inside the financial network."
"How?"
"I don't know yet."
Another alarm triggered.
Then another.
Within seconds, half the screens filled with error messages.
Elara stepped closer.
"What are they doing?"
Luca's expression darkened.
"They're not stealing money."
Ares' eyes narrowed.
"Then what?"
Luca turned the monitor toward them.
"They're freezing it."
Ares looked at the numbers.
Hundreds of millions locked.
Transactions blocked.
Accounts inaccessible.
Someone had just paused the Valentino empire's global financial system.
Elara exhaled slowly.
"This isn't an attack."
Ares glanced at her.
"What do you mean."
She pointed at the screen.
"If they wanted to destroy you, they could have."
A pause.
"They're testing you."
The words settled heavily in the room.
Ares considered it.
And realized she was right.
The system suddenly went silent.
The alarms stopped.
The screens returned to normal.
Every account unlocked.
Every transaction restored.
Like nothing had happened.
Luca stared at the console.
"They just… left."
Ares' expression hardened.
"No."
His voice dropped dangerously low.
"They made their first move."
Across the world, in a dark office lit only by a single monitor, a man closed his laptop.
The screen displayed the Valentino financial network.
A small smile appeared on his lips.
"Good," he murmured.
"Now you're paying attention, Ares Valentino."
He leaned back in his chair, eyes calm and calculating.
"The game has officially begun."