CHAPTER 10: The Photo+ First Threat

The car ride back to the villa was silent.  

Giulia sat with her phone face-down on her lap. The deleted message burned behind her eyes. _I know why he really left you._ She did not look at Marco. She could still feel his mouth on hers. Still taste coffee and something reckless.  

9 days left.  

Marco broke the silence first. “You’re shaking.”  

Giulia pulled her hand from his grip and pressed it against the window. Cold glass. “I’m fine.”  

“You’re not fine,” he said. “You kissed me back in front of fifty reporters. That’s not fine. That’s war.”  

“It was your idea,” Giulia snapped. Then softer: “Wasn’t it?”  

Marco didn’t answer. He stared at the road ahead, jaw tight. The CEO mask was cracked, but he wore it anyway.  

When they reached the villa, Sofia met them at the door. “Signorina, a package came for you.” She held out a small black box. No sender. No label.  

Giulia took it with both hands. Inside: a USB drive and a single printed photo. The same photo from the message. Seventeen-year-old her, kissing Marco behind the university library. Dust on her knees. Laughter on his lips.  

On the back of the photo, handwritten: _9 days. Ask him why he left. - V_  

Giulia’s fingers went numb.  

Marco saw it. He took the photo from her without asking. His face went blank. Not angry. Not guilty. Empty. The way he looked the night he disappeared eight years ago.  

“Who is V?” Giulia asked.  

“Valentina,” Marco said. He turned the USB drive over in his palm. “She was there that night. Watching.”  

The air in the room got thinner.  

Giulia stepped back. “You said you left because of your father. Because of the company. You said—”  

“I said a lot of things,” Marco cut her off. He walked to the fireplace and dropped the photo in. Flame caught the corner. Seventeen-year-old Giulia burned first. Then Marco’s smile.  

“Don’t,” Giulia whispered. “That’s all I had left of us.”  

“You don’t need it,” Marco said. He didn’t watch the fire. He watched her. “You need the truth. And the truth is, I didn’t leave because of my father.”  

Giulia crossed her arms. “Then why? Tell me now. 9 days left. No more lies.”  

Marco opened his mouth. Closed it. For the first time since Milan, CEO Marco had no answer.  

The USB drive sat on the mantel between them. A threat. A secret.  

“Don’t plug it in,” Marco said finally. “Whatever’s on there, it’s a lie she built to hurt you.”  

“Or it’s the truth you’ve been hiding,” Giulia shot back. “For eight years.”  

Footsteps in the hall. Signore Bianchi’s cane tapped once on marble. “Marco. My office. Now.”  

Marco looked at Giulia. Really looked at her. Like he was memorizing her face in case this was the last time.  

“Don’t watch it,” he said again. Then he left.  

Giulia stood alone with the USB drive. 9 days left. The merger was done. The kiss was public. The contract was cracking.  

Her mother’s surgery was scheduled for Day 5. Luca called her twice. She ignored both calls.  

She picked up the USB drive. It was warm from Marco’s hand.  

The laptop on the desk blinked at her. Login screen. Innocent.  

Giulia inserted the drive.  

A single video file opened. Timestamp: 8 years ago. 2:13am.  

The screen showed Marco, nineteen, standing in the rain outside the university library. Not alone.  

Valentina stood in front of him. Crying. Holding a positive pregnancy test.  

Valentina’s voice came through the speaker, broken: “It’s yours, Marco. Please don’t make me do this alone.”  

The video ended.  

Giulia’s hands fell to her sides. The USB drive clattered to the floor.  

9 days left.  

Her phone buzzed. Unknown number again. New text: _He left you for a baby, Giulia. And the baby died. Ask him why he never told you._  

Upstairs, a door slammed. Marco’s voice, low and furious, echoed down the hall. “You had no right—”  

Giulia didn’t hear the rest.  

She only heard her own breathing. Fast. Shallow. Like she was drowning again.  

The fire in the fireplace popped. The burned photo

curled into ash.  

9 days left.  

And the contract was the least of her problems now.