LOGINLuciano’s POV My voice trailed off as I stood there, staring at Chiara. Seeing her again dragged everything back to the surface, emotions I had spent years burying under duty, pride, and regret. I had convinced myself I had learned to live without her, that time had dulled whatever we once had, but standing here now proved how wrong I had been. She looked exactly as I remembered, untouched by time, as if the past five years had simply passed her by. Her presence alone stirred something deep inside me, something warm and familiar, something that felt dangerously close to home. Even her scent wrapped around me in a way that made my chest tighten, reminding me just how empty everything had been without her. When I heard she was back, I knew there was only one place she would go. Still, I hesitated for hours before coming here, caught between longing and the certainty that I had no right to stand in front of her again. I told myself that five years might have softened things, that ma
Chiara’s POV After Luciano De Luca left, I forced myself back into motion, as though staying still for too long would allow everything inside me to unravel. I returned to the office first, then made my way down to the lab where I buried myself in work alongside the researchers until the last of them clocked out. By then, exhaustion had begun to creep in, slow and heavy, wrapping itself around my limbs and dulling my focus. And when I was tired, my mind betrayed me. His words lingered longer than they should have. He said he was happy. If that was true, then it meant he had moved on, truly and completely. It meant I no longer existed in his world beyond a distant memory, something faint and irrelevant. Perhaps his questions earlier had only been curiosity, nothing more. A passing interest in someone who used to matter. I swallowed against the tightness in my chest and forced myself back to the present. There was progress in the lab, real progress, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearl
Chiara's POV I regretted the way things ended with Giacomo, even though I knew I had done the right thing. There was a quiet kind of relief in knowing we would remain friends, but it did not erase the sting of hurting him. That part lingered, heavy and uncomfortable, like a bruise beneath the skin that would not fade quickly. The truth was simple, even if it was cruel. I could not force myself into a life that did not belong to me. Not even for someone as kind and devoted as him. He would have tried, I knew he would, to build something beautiful between us, something stable and warm. We might have laughed together, shared moments that looked like happiness from the outside, but deep down, something essential would always be missing. Because no matter what, my heart would still turn toward Luciano De Luca. That was the part I hated most. The part that made me feel weak and unfair. Giacomo could have been everything a woman asked for, and still, it would not have been enough for me.
Giacomo’s POV Even after all these years, Giacomo was still not used to rejection. You would think that five years of hearing “no” from Chiara would have hardened him, would have built some kind of shield around his heart, but it had not. Instead, he had done what he always did best. He had hoped. He had convinced himself that this time would be different. He believed that if she could just see him properly, not the careless man he used to be, but the man he had become, she would finally understand. Every late night, every sacrifice, every step forward in his life had been driven by the thought of her. Not just to win her, but to become someone worthy of standing beside her. But reality did not bend for hope. Reality was cold, sharp, and unyielding. And reality, once again, had chosen her answer for her. Chiara, the only woman who had ever rejected him, had done it again. Gently. Kindly. Almost painfully so. Yet strangely, he found that he was not angry. Not even truly shocked
Chiara’s POV The moment Luciano De Luca stepped into the break room, everything else lost meaning. Sound, movement, even the steady rhythm of my own breathing faded beneath the thunder of my heartbeat. It pounded so loudly in my ears that it felt suffocating, as though I had been sealed inside something too small to contain everything I suddenly felt. He was here. After five long years of absence, of silence, of carefully constructed distance, he stood right in front of me as though no time had passed at all. He looked unchanged in all the ways that mattered. His tall frame carried the same quiet authority, his tailored suit stretching over broad shoulders that still spoke of strength and control. His hair was slicked back with precision, his face clean-shaven, sharp, composed, unreadable to anyone who did not know him as intimately as I once had. Shock flickered across his features when his gaze landed on me and Giacomo together, but it was fleeting. Luciano had always mastered
Chiara's POV The hug with Giacomo lingered longer than I expected, stretching into something warm and familiar that quietly bridged the five years between us. It had been a long time since I had stood this close to someone who knew me from before everything changed, and I allowed myself, just for a moment, to enjoy it. When we finally pulled apart, he looked at me with an intensity that made my chest tighten slightly, his smile soft but unwavering, as though I were something rare he was afraid might vanish if he blinked. “You look exactly the same,” he said, his voice light with admiration. I studied him in return and found that I couldn’t say the same. Giacomo had changed in ways that went beyond the surface. His hair was neatly cut now, no longer the careless, rebellious style he used to wear, and his suit fit him perfectly, sharp and deliberate in a way that spoke of discipline. There was a new edge to him, something more controlled beneath the familiar charm, though the playful
Luciano De Luca’s POV An ice-cold feeling started within me, where my heart was, and stretched outward along my limbs to the very tips of my fingers and the base of my toes. Chiara and Matteo used to date. Sick to my stomach, I couldn’t stand the sight of the picture anymore. I tucked it away i
Silvia Romano’s POV “Because of Doctor B’s abilities and her resolve to never give up, Cesare was able to decide for himself whether he wanted the life-extending medicine or not,” Luciano De Luca said on the television. “Because of this, she has saved us all from making a grave error.” This wasn
Chiara’s POV Once again, I found myself caught off guard by the kind of man Luciano De Luca truly was. Not for the first time, he had stepped forward to shield Doctor B from ruin. He had spoken with unwavering confidence, placed his authority on the line, and silenced a restless crowd with nothin
“Isn’t there a television in here?” Carlo asked, his voice dripping with anticipation. One of the other healers, Lorenzo, gestured toward a boxy television sitting in the corner of the panic room and switched it on. The screen flickered before settling on a live broadcast of the chaos outside the







