Graveyard Confessions

The Valenti family's private hospital had been blazing with light for three days and three nights, and I was the only patient inside.

The hospital had assembled a team of the world's foremost doctors alongside specialists in virology, toxicology, and biochemistry. Even practitioners of the most ancient folk medicine had been summoned. Every one of them had come for a single purpose: to keep me alive.

Three days earlier, I had gone to negotiate with the Carrera family and accidentally ingested a lethal toxin. The poison was steadily corroding my organs and could trigger complete organ failure at any moment.

After three days and nights of research, they arrived at the same conclusion.

I had seven days left to live.

They ordered me to remain in the hospital under 24-hour medical supervision, but I refused.

After all, someone was waiting for me to set her free.

The black Maybach glided into the Valenti estate, nestled between the mountains and the sea. Inside, Evelina Fontana was curled up on the hand-stitched leather couch in the sitting room, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt and indifference.

"I heard you got involved with those thugs from the Carrera family and got hurt?"

She looked me over. "Doesn't seem like much. The Carreras popped their champagne a little too early."

I forced down the searing burn of the toxin tearing through my chest and walked slowly to the seat across from her.

"Give me the divorce papers."

Evelina's brow furrowed sharply. "Leo, who exactly are you putting on this dying act for?"

I had no desire to argue with her. I kept my eyes locked on hers and asked for the papers again.

Each wave of dizziness hit harder than the last. My body had reached its limit, but I did not want to lose consciousness in front of her.

I refused to let the woman I had loved see me at my most vulnerable.

Evelina let out an irritated scoff and slammed the divorce papers onto the coffee table. "Hurry up. Enzo and I are having afternoon tea."

I picked up the pen and signed my name stroke by careful stroke, pouring every last ounce of strength into writing ‘Leo Valenti’.

The moment the pen completed its final stroke, the poison drained whatever I had left.

I collapsed against the edge of the coffee table as a suffocating pressure swallowed my entire body.

"Go. This is my last gift to you. You're going to like it."

Evelina laughed, cold and cutting. "You think acting weak and pathetic is going to make me feel sorry for you? Do you think it’ll make me come back?

"If you hadn't used the Valenti family's power to threaten my parents, if you hadn't forced me to give up going abroad to be with Enzo, if you hadn't made me marry a ruthless mafioso like you, I would've been living happily with Enzo a long time ago."

I forced a smile as the metallic taste of blood kept rising in my throat. "All these years, you've hated me the whole time, haven't you?"

She walked over to me. "Yes. I've never stopped."

"If I died, would you let go of that hatred? Would you forgive me?"

Evelina looked away. "When you're actually dead, then come talk to me about forgiveness."