Novels by Luneth

MATEOI continued reading."Three months ago, I watched Giulia intentionally upset Elara until the poor girl started crying.I thought she would comfort her.Instead she smiled. Like she really smiled while the poor girl cried.Then she sat quietly and watched.As if she was studying her."I looked away from the page.Just for a second.My stomach twisted.I thought about Elara.The way she rarely reacted.The way she hid her emotions so well.The way she seemed to observe everyone around her.Had she learned that because of them?Or had she always been that way?I didn't know anymore.I lowered my eyes back to the letter."I asked Giulia why she enjoyed provoking her.I wish I had never asked.She laughed.Actually laughed.Then she told me something I will never forget.She said:'Pressure reveals the truth.'When I asked her what truth she was talking about, she simply looked toward Elara's bedroom and said:'The truth about what she really is.'”My chest tightened.The words seeme

MATEOThe abandoned house sat at the end of a narrow road surrounded by dead grass and twisted trees. The sky above was gray, and the cold wind made the branches scrape against one another like old bones. I stood beside my car for a moment, staring at the house Elara had grown up in. It looked smaller than I expected. Older too. The paint was peeling from the walls, and several windows were cracked. Nothing about it looked dangerous, yet a strange feeling settled heavily in my chest. It felt like the house was watching me. I told myself that was ridiculous. It was just an old building. Just wood and stone and dust. But after everything I had learned during the past few weeks, nothing felt simple anymore. Every answer I found about Elara only created more questions. The investigator's report was sitting on the passenger seat of my car. Giulia Romano. Former wife of Alessandro Romano. Official cause of death: suicide. Unofficially? Nobody seemed to understand what had happened. Every pe

MATEOThe room was quiet except for the ticking of the clock on the wall. My attention was fixed on the thick brown envelope lying on my desk. The private investigator had delivered it less than an hour ago. Since then, I had been staring at it like it might suddenly disappear if I looked away.I slowly opened the envelope and pulled out the documents inside. The papers felt old. Some were wrinkled. Some looked like photocopies of photocopies. Right away, I noticed something strange. Entire pages were missing. Several sections had been blacked out. Names were hidden. Dates were incomplete. It looked less like a medical file and more like something someone had tried very hard to bury.I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my jaw. “What are you hiding, Elara?” I muttered quietly to myself.The investigator had warned me this would happen.“She saw multiple psychiatrists between the ages of fourteen and seventeen,” he had told me earlier that evening. “But most of the records are sealed.

MATEOI stood in my office, staring through the large window behind my desk. The glass was covered with tiny droplets. Beyond it, the gardens looked gray and lifeless.My whiskey sat untouched beside me.That alone should have told me something was wrong.Normally, after a day like this, I would have finished half the bottle already.Instead, I couldn't stop thinking.Couldn't stop waiting.A sharp knock sounded against my office door.I turned."Come in."The door opened.Dario stepped inside first.The investigator followed behind him.A man in his fifties.Quiet.Careful.The kind of man who made a living finding things other people wanted hidden.My stomach tightened.I hated that.I hated feeling nervous before hearing information about my own wife.Dario closed the door behind them.The investigator sat down across from me.His expression wasn't excited.It wasn't triumphant either.If anything, he looked uncertain.And somehow that made me even more uncomfortable."Well?" I ask

MATEORain tapped softly against the tall windows, and the sound seemed to echo through the empty hallways. Most of the staff had already gone to their quarters. The lights were dim throughout the house, casting long shadows across the polished floors. It was the kind of night that usually helped me think.Tonight, it wasn't helping at all.I was supposed to be reviewing footage from the estate perimeter.A routine check.Nothing more.At least, that was the plan.I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my eyes. My head hurt from lack of sleep. For weeks, I had barely rested. Every time I closed my eyes, my thoughts somehow returned to Elara.The hidden box.Bianca.Luna.The strange phone call.The impossible calmness.I hated it.I hated how much space she occupied inside my mind.One of the guards entered the room carrying a tablet."Everything clear, Don Mateo," he said.I nodded absentmindedly."Leave it."The guard placed it beside me and left.I stared at the screens for another m

MATEOThe office stayed quiet after she left.I sat there for a long time without moving, my elbows resting on my desk while the smell of her perfume still hung in the air. My tie lay on the floor. My breathing had finally slowed down, but my chest still felt tight somehow. Heavy. Like something had shifted inside the room and refused to settle back into place.The lamp beside the desk cast a low golden light across the floor. One of the papers from earlier had fallen near the couch during everything that happened. Her hairpin was still beside my hand.Small things.Soft things.But they made the room feel dangerous now.I stared at the closed office door, listening to the sound of her footsteps disappear down the hallway outside. Calm footsteps. Not rushed. Not embarrassed.Just steady.That unsettled me more than anything.I had expected her to panic afterward. Or avoid looking at me. Maybe pull her clothes together with shaking hands and rush out like she regretted everything. I th