Lila"What does he mean by this Jenny? What did you say to him? Where did he go?" My legs nearly give out. I stagger to the couch, the letter fluttering in my trembling hands. The paper is warm from my grip, but his words cut through me like ice.Gone where, Luca? None of this was making an sense, I had only stepped out for a few minutes, waht could she have possibly said to him. I read faster, eyes blurring from more than just the tears building behind them. As if trying to find an hidden message behind the message. But there was no hidden message, it was just as plain as it read. I was about to get up, when I saw another note, a little hidden like he didn't want someone to find it. He had placed it below the fruit bowl, neatly folded. I picked the note, careful not to seem suspicious to Jenny who seemed unfazed by any of this. 'Lila, I couldn’t stay. I know you’ll hate me for this, and I deserve that. But after hearing her, hearing what she said, it wasn’t enough. There is mo
Luca. I didn’t let myself feel.Not anger, not betrayal, not even the dull ache of exhaustion that had settled into my bones after days of too little sleep.Feeling was a luxury I couldn’t afford.I had exactly one priority now: ending this.Vanessa had always been reckless. That was her weakness. She thought running would put her beyond my reach. She’d forgotten who she was dealing with.I was raised by a man who taught me every way to track a person, every tool you could use to flush them out of whatever hole they crawled into.And Vanessa was never as clever as she believed.I climbed into the backseat of the armored SUV, ignoring the cold burn of my healing leg as I settled in. Paolo was in the driver’s seat, hands clenched on the wheel.“Start driving,” I said.“To where, sir?”“Back to the hospital.”His jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. The engine rumbled to life, and we pulled away from the house.I pulled my phone from my coat pocket and scrolled through the last few texts
Lila. I could not believe this was actually happening to me. I took another test and the results were the same. I was pregnant. I stared at the stick. Still. Two pink lines. Still.It had been five minutes. Ten maybe. Or an hour? I couldn’t tell anymore. My hands were cold and shaking . My heartbeat pounded in my ears like a bass drum in an empty hall. I tried to breathe. In. Out. Slow. Steady.Pregnant.The word looped in my brain like a song I hated but couldn’t stop humming. I sat on the edge of the bathtub, knees pressed to my chest, the test trembling in my fingers. A thousand thoughts crashed together in my head like a demolition site how? Well, obviously how. But... now what? What the hell was I supposed to do now?We hadn't even had a real conversation with Luca for over a week now, and I was supposed to just casually tell him that now I was pregnant. I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted metal. I’d rehearsed it a dozen ways in my head soft, careful, maybe over dinner, o
Lila. Luca walked back into the bedroom with a distracted frown, his shirt half untucked, the top button open. For a moment, when his eyes landed on me fully dressed, I thought I saw something like regret flicker there. But it was gone so quickly I wondered if I’d imagined it.He raked a hand through his dark hair and exhaled. “It was nothing that couldn’t have been handled tomorrow,” he muttered, almost to himself.“Luca…” My voice came out brittle, like thin glass. “Can we finish our conversation now? I can’t pretend everything is fine.”He stared at me, his expression unreadable. “If you insist.”I swallowed hard. My pulse hammered against my throat, so loud I thought he’d hear it. My heart screamed at me to just tell him. To blurt out that I was pregnant, that everything between us had changed whether he liked it or not. But instead, what came out was a shaky question I already dreaded the answer to.“Is that truly how you see me?”His jaw clenched. “Lila…”“Please,” I whispered.
Lila. Morning came far too quickly.I woke to soft sunlight streaming over the polished floor and the low murmur of voices in the hallway beyond my bedroom door. For one blissful moment, I thought maybe I’d imagined everything that I’d open my eyes and find myself in a life I recognized.But when I sat up, the unfamiliar room stared back at me, every detail a reminder that my memory was a shattered thing.I was already dressed when the nurse came in an older woman named Francesca, with kind eyes and a practiced gentleness. She helped me into a pair of soft flats and draped a cashmere wrap around my shoulders, as if she thought I might shatter if she handled me too roughly.“Mr. Romano asked that you have something to eat before you go,” she said, glancing at the untouched tray on the table.“I’m not hungry,” I mumbled.Francesca sighed as she poured a cup of tea. “You need your strength. Especially for the baby.”That word. *Baby.* It felt unreal on my tongue, something that belonged
The WallLilaI didn’t mean to overhear.I was coming down the hall with a tray of tea for myself because anything stronger would’ve only added fuel to the ache behind my eyes, when I heard the voices.One was unmistakably Richard Deluca. Cold, scathing, cruel. I had heard it on TV so many times and the times he would step into the café I used to work at. The other was Luca’s.And for the first time since I had met him, it sounded…small.I froze behind the archway near the foyer, heart thudding, tea forgotten.“Pathetic,” his father’s voice hissed like acid. “You’ve always been weak, Luca. Your mother saw it too. She just refused to admit it.”There was a pause. A heartbeat. Maybe Luca said something too soft to catch.Then Richard again, louder now. “You really think that girl is going to save you? You’re not the type that gets saved. You’re the anchor. The weight around her neck.”I pressed my hand to my mouth.The silence that followed was sharp, suffocating.Then the door opened.