CHAPTER 4 — WHEN THE PAST WALKS BACK IN

Leo's POV

The room shifted the second Valentina stepped through the door. Not with surprise — nothing she did shocked me anymore — but with that familiar tightness in my chest, the one she’d mastered long before the crash.

“Maya,” I said quietly, without looking away from Valentina. “Stay.”

I didn’t know why I said it. Maybe because I didn’t want to face Valentina alone. Maybe because Maya’s presence had begun to steady something inside me I didn’t want to admit existed. Maybe because she was the only person in this house who didn’t want something from me.

Valentina’s heels clicked against the marble as she approached, slow and deliberate. She always moved like she expected the world to stop and make room for her.

“Leo,” she breathed, tilting her head, eyes soft in a way I now recognized as completely calculated. “You look… alive.”

I let out a short, humorless laugh. “That’s one way to put it.”

She pressed a manicured hand to her chest. “You can drop the hostility. I came because your family was worried.”

That stung more than I liked. Why her? Why call the one person I least wanted to see?

My voice stayed cold. “You came because they asked you to — not because you suddenly care.”

Her eyes flicked to Maya, who stood beside me, quiet but unshaken, and a thin, irritated smile curved Valentina’s lips.

“And who is this?” Her tone suggested the answer didn’t matter.

“My caregiver,” I said, my voice low. “And she’s none of your business.”

Valentina’s brows lifted slightly. “Caregiver,” she repeated, like the word tasted foreign on her tongue. “I didn’t know we were hiring from outside the circle.”

I felt Maya stiffen, though she didn’t speak. She didn’t need to. Her silence was stronger than anything she could have said.

Valentina stepped closer, lowering her voice as if she and I shared a secret. “You really trust someone like her? Alone in your home, in your condition?”

My hands curled around the armrests of my chair. “She’s trained and professional. Unlike you.”

Valentina’s smile faltered for half a second before sharpening again. “She’s plain,” she said softly, eyes narrowing. “And painfully inexperienced.”

“Maya is the first person who’s walked in here and treated me like a human being,” I said. “Not a broken investment.”

Valentina stilled, her surprise flickering faster than she could hide it. Her gaze drifted back to Maya, studying her not as competition, but as a threat.

“Interesting,” she murmured. Maya didn’t flinch. She simply watched, calm but alert, with that quiet steadiness I had noticed from the moment she first walked into my hospital room.

Valentina sighed, dramatic as ever, placing a hand on the back of my chair like she still had a right to touch anything in my life.

“I came because I still care, Leo,” she said softly. “You pushed me away after the accident, when you needed me most.”

I laughed. “Because you cheated,” I corrected. “You didn’t even care to visit after you put me in this wheelchair.”

Her jaw tightened. “That isn’t fair.”

“You don’t get to talk about fairness.”

She opened her mouth, probably to twist the story into something convenient, but the suite door swung open again. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence.

Cristiano. My cousin. The one who always lingered at the edges of family meetings, smiling too smoothly, calculating too quickly. He stepped inside wearing that smug expression that made my blood run hotter than it should.

His eyes scanned the room: Valentina beside me. Maya standing firm. Myself, caught between the ruins of my old life and the faint shape of something new.

“Well,” Cristiano drawled, closing the door behind him, “looks like I walked into quite the reunion.”

I exhaled through my teeth. “Cristiano,” I said flatly. “I didn’t ask for you.”

He walked in like he owned the place, like he’d been waiting for this moment. “I heard Valentina showed up,” he said, glancing at her with a smirk. “Thought I’d check on my dear cousin.”

His attention shifted to Maya, lingering with interest that made my jaw tighten.

“And who might this be?” Before I could answer, Valentina stepped closer to him, her tone dripping with false sweetness. “His… caregiver.”

Cristiano raised an eyebrow. “A caregiver?” His smirk widened. “That’s new.”

I felt Maya tense beside me, but she said nothing — and somehow, that quiet defiance drew my focus more than either of them.

Cristiano’s gaze cut back to me, sharp and probing. “Caregiver or not,” he said, “it seems you’ve been making interesting choices lately.”

Valentina crossed her arms. “I was just telling him the same.”

Their alliance, whether intentional or not, circled me like vultures. Maya’s hand brushed the side of my chair. Barely a touch, barely a presence, but grounding and real.

Cristiano leaned forward slightly. “So tell us, cousin…” His voice dropped, slow and deliberate.

“…is she just here to help you walk again, or is she helping you forget someone?”

Maya froze. Valentina’s lips parted, and I felt the first spark of something dangerous flare in my chest.

“Watch your mouth,” I said quietly.

Cristiano smiled. Valentina’s eyes gleamed, and Maya looked at me like she wasn’t sure what I had just revealed.

The regret hit me then, not for defending her, but for letting Valentina step back into my world, dragging every piece of my past with her.

For the first time since the accident, I realized this wasn’t just about learning to walk again. It was about surviving the people who wanted me broken — and holding on to the one person who didn’t.