Valentina.Matteo woke up twelve hours after his surgery. I was there, standing in the corner of the room, shrouded in the shadows cast by the dim hospital lighting. I'd stayed long after the others had been ushered out... Valerie, Lorenzo, Ethan... all of them trying to coax me into taking a moment to rest, to eat, to breathe.But I couldn't leave him.When his eyes finally fluttered open, confusion clouded his expression. Those beautiful eyes wandered, tracing the IV in his arm, the bandages around his neck, and the faint rhythm of the heart monitor beside him.He looked so lost.I wanted to rush at him, to grab his hand, to tell him he was safe. But my feet felt like lead, my chest tightening with an ache that I didn't know how to express.So I stayed where I was, watching him from afar. The staff couldn't believe I was the same woman who had almost thrown herself on his bed so I would be wheeled in with him.Matteo murmured something... a weak, hoarse sound I couldn't make out..
Valentina."Matteo!" The scream ripped from my throat, raw and primal, echoing off the walls. My hands trembled as I pressed them harder against the gaping wound on his neck. Blood seeped between my fingers, warm and sticky, staining my skin and my soul."No, no, no," I choked out, my voice cracking as I leaned over him. "Matteo, stay with me. Please, stay with me."His face was getting paler with every second that passed, his chest rising and falling in those shallow, uneven rhythms.I pressed harder against the wound, ignoring the way my hands shook, ignoring the tears streaming down my face. "You're not leaving me," I whispered fiercely. "Do you hear me? You're not allowed to leave me!""Somebody, help!"Anybody.Isabella stood near the edge of the room, arms crossed and face unreadable. Her lips twisted into that maddening, faint smirk as Luca’s... there had to be his... men darted around her, their boots pounding against the floor.The moment the faint wail of sirens broke thro
Valentina.The silence after a gunshot could be deafening, a void that swallows everything. No one ever talked about how it felt to pull the trigger that took a life, even if said life had been dead long before you pulled that trigger.I stood there, my arms hanging limp by the sides, the gun slipping from my hand to clatter on the blood-streaked floor. My chest heaved with shallow breaths as I stared at her... our mother, slumped and motionless.So quiet in the face of death.Her lifeless eyes stared back at me, now glassy and unseeing. Blood pooled around her head, soaking into the floor, a dark halo of guilt I'd painted myself."No," I whispered, the word tasting foreign and hollow.My knees buckled, but I didn't fall. My body was rooted, trapped in this moment, as if time itself refused to let me leave.What had I done? From the corner of my vision, Isabella shifted. Her face fixed with a mask of indifference, though her lips were curling ever so slightly into a smirk that sent
Matteo.The metallic tang of blood filled my nostrils, sharp and suffocating. Luca's knee drove deeper into my chest, pinning me to the blood-slick floor. The knife in his hand pressed harder against my throat, its edge biting into flesh with a cold, merciless precision.Warmth spread across my neck, the metallic smell sharp in the air. I gasped, the air a fleeting luxury as my body thrashed instinctively beneath his weight."Look at you," Luca sneered, his voice low, dripping with venom. "The great Matteo Nevarro reduced to this. Pathetic." His face hovered just above mine, his grin unhinged, his green eyes alight with triumph. My vision blurred, edges darkening as the oxygen slipped away. My hands clawed at his wrists, my fingers trembling with desperation, but his grip remained unyielding.The lunatic was truly going to kill me.Then, as the world began to darken, her face appeared. Valentina. Her laughter, light and rare, the way her lips curled despite the weight of her own
Matteo."I'll kill you with my own hands, Luca."My breath came in sharp, controlled bursts as I squared off with Luca. His men surrounded us, their guns trained on me, and Lorenzo’s men who had survived the chaos outside. The air in the room was electric, thick with tension, and the metallic tang of blood."I should have known," I continued before he said anything again, keeping my voice low yet steady. "I should've known you'd never stop until you destroyed everything."Luca had always wanted what wasn't meant for him. Even from a younger age, when he had come to live with my father and I, alongside his mother and sister, he had wanted everything I had.Every toy.Every achievement.He simply wanted to have it all. And every single time he got it then he destroyed it afterwards. He burnt the toys, he tore the certificates, he told the lesson teachers to leave or he'll scar them."Destroyed?" Luca echoed, a laugh bursting from him, dark and sharp. "You're standing in front of the onl
Matteo."I hate you. Do you hear me? I HATE YOU."My hands had lingered on the cold steel of the door handle when she screamed those words, the echo of the lock sliding into place still ringing in my ears.It wasn't a decision I had taken lightly.Locking Valentina up in a room with her psycho of a mother to keep her safe was probably the dumbest thing I had ever done, but it was worth it. If it gave her an opportunity to leave here safely, then I had to believe that.My boots scraped against the concrete as I forced myself to move, step by step, away from that door. Each step felt heavier than the last, weighed down by a mix of guilt and resolve.Fuck.Had I done the right thing?No. I couldn't afford to think about that now, so I pushed the thought aside, my jaw tightening as I straightened my posture. There was no time for doubt.Luca was out there, and every second spent questioning my decision was just a second wasted. When this was over, I would fall to her feet, kiss it, even