After the Crash

I didn’t sleep that night.Every time I closed my eyes, I woke up crying. By dawn, I just sat there—knees pulled to my chest, staring into the dark until the sky turned gray.When Luca came home the next morning, I pretended to be asleep.He took off his coat, waited for the chill to fade from his body, and then pulled me into his arms. I could feel his heartbeat, steady and strong, against my back.“Baby, look,” he said softly, opening his tablet.A picture of an island glowed on the screen—white sand, blue water, the kind of paradise people write about.“I just bought it,” he said, his voice almost boyish. “It’s for our child. And that’s not all—I’ve started building amusement parks across the country. Every one will carry our child’s name. When we finally have one, I’ll throw a hundred-day celebration. The whole city will come to celebrate.”He looked so proud of himself, so full of plans for a future I knew would never come.He talked and talked, and it took him a full minute to r

Luca POVI felt the world tilt beneath me before my body hit the ground.Voices blurred. Someone shouted my name. My head was spinning, my vision full of white noise.Valeria couldn’t be gone.She couldn’t.I forced myself up, stumbled out of the mansion, and half-ran toward the garage.I didn’t care about the guards, the questions, the eyes that followed me.I just needed to find her.The moment I got into the car, I saw the envelope she’d left on the passenger seat.The one she told me to open in two days.My chest seized. I could barely breathe.Every heartbeat was a knife twisting in my ribs.I slammed my fist against the steering wheel until my knuckles split.Why did I ever agree to let her fly alone?Why didn’t I send a pilot with her?Because I’d been distracted.Too busy throwing a birthday party for Bianca’s twins — the twins I should never have had.The search went on for two full days.The Moretti family sent rescue teams, helicopters, ships.Every mile of the Atlantic with

Ryan called Luca that night.By morning, men from the Moretti family were already following Clara.When Luca finally saw me—standing in the garden of the small townhouse I’d been renting—he stopped dead in his tracks.For a moment, neither of us moved.His eyes went red instantly, like he’d been holding his breath for months.Seven months. Two hundred and fourteen days.He’d searched every continent, turned every ocean upside down—and yet, when we finally stood face to face, he looked terrified.Terrified that I was real.Terrified that I wasn’t.And when his gaze fell to my stomach, his breath caught.He knew.He understood.I hadn’t lost the baby.“Valeria…” His voice cracked around my name.I looked at him once, then away. “Luca.”My tone was ice. “I faked my death because I wanted freedom. But since you’ve found me, let’s make one thing clear—you and I are over. For good. Don’t think you can guilt me, chase me, or wear me down until I forgive you. It won’t happen.”He just st