MasukAurora POVI sit in the lecture hall with my notebook open and my pen resting uselessly between my fingers.The professor’s voice washes over me without meaning. Words drift past but my gaze keeps sliding to the window toward the outside world where everything that matters is happening without me.D
My chest tightens.“There you are,” he says as his gaze instantly finds me.“Here I am,” I smile as I cross the room to him, feeling drab in my school clothes next to him. “Where else would I be?”His hand comes to my waist like it belongs there—because it does. When he looks at me, the weight of ev
Aurora POV The hotel room smells faintly of oud and sandalwood, the most trendy and expensive perfume of the moment. This is the kind of place that knows it’s expensive and doesn’t let you forget it.I sit cross-legged on the edge of the bed in jeans and a sweatshirt, my dress hung carefully so it
Aurora POVThe coffeehouse smells like burnt espresso and pastries, like safety in the form of routine.I sit in my usual corner between classes, my back to the brick wall, the small round table pressed close enough that no one, not even my usual friends, can slide in uninvited. I am too distracted
Then she looks past Dominic and the body to the other older man standing waiting, his face full of resigned dignity so unlike what had been Francesco’s final moments.“Can Gianna’s father live?” she asks hoarsely, her soft voice barely reaching him across the empty space of the warehouse.The words
Aurora POVGianna is finally still.The pill I offered her dissolved beneath her tongue, and within minutes the sharp edges of her panic soften. Her lashes flutter as she slumps against the pillow, breath evening out, the fight draining from her limbs.I brush her hair back from her face with shakin
Aurora POVI can still feel the sting on my cheek.It’s faint now, more ache than the burning I’d felt when it happened, but it lingers like a brand… like a cruel reminder of the moment everything with Gianna truly shattered.The car is silent as Dominic drives us back to the hotel from our morning
His hands found her face, tilting it up as his mouth came down on hers. This time there was no hesitation, no lingering hurt between them like there had been earlier.Only raw, consuming need.They made it to the bed when he pulled her away from the door, a tangle of limbs and eager grabs while her
Romero’s fingers move subtly, jotting the note down in a small leather-bound journal beside him.“The room Gianna is being kept in has a window but you can’t open it from the inside,” I continue. “But maybe once there is a distraction happening at the front doors, someone can smash the window in and
Dominic POVShe was sitting there beside him with her arms folded protectively around her body, eyes fixed on some invisible point outside the window in front of them.The longer he stared at her, waiting for her to say something, the more he dwelled. All he could see was her face in the back of his







