"Ever since I first laid my eyes on you, my perspective to this stupid world changed."

...♡...

Ezriel De Angelis was born into one of Europe’s most elusive and powerful dynasties—the De Angelis family. While his surname opens doors in high society, it also carries the heavy weight of legacy, secrets, and silent expectations. The De Angelis family is known for its wealth, art collections, political connections, and discreet involvement in multinational businesses that tiptoe the line between legitimate and shadowy.

Ezriel's earliest memories are of a grand villa in Lake Como, where marble floors echoed with silence and his mother’s piano playing was the only warmth that filled the halls. Viviana De Angelis, his mother, was everything soft and untouchable—an elegant woman with a voice like wind through lace curtains. She would sing to him in Italian, brush his hair back as he fell asleep, and whisper promises that the world could still be beautiful, even for someone like him.

When Ezriel was just nine, Viviana died under suspicious circumstances. The official statement was “an accidental overdose,” but Ezriel remembers too many inconsistencies—the bruises on her wrist, the locked door, the whispers between staff, and above all, the blank, unreadable look on his father’s face.

Luciano De Angelis, his father, is a cold and calculating man—stoic, powerful, and feared even among billionaires. After Viviana’s death, Ezriel was sent away to elite boarding schools in Switzerland and England. These years forged him into someone others revered but could not touch. He became the perfect heir: intelligent, fluent in multiple languages, trained in classical arts, deadly in self-defense, and emotionally impenetrable. But underneath the polished exterior is a boy who never got to grieve properly.

He returned to Madrid at sixteen to attend Colegio Monteclaro Internacional, officially to complete his education and “build local social ties.” In truth, it was part of his father’s plan to prepare him for public leadership and secure future alliances. But Ezriel has his own reasons for returning to Madrid—it’s where his mother once lived freely, where fragments of her past might still remain... and where he might finally uncover the truth behind her death.

At school, Ezriel instantly became the center of gravity—beautiful, unreachable, and utterly magnetic. Girls threw themselves at him; boys envied or idolized him. Teachers saw brilliance, but were wary of his eyes—too old, too haunted for his age.