جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 200

OLIVIA“Where are you going, Red?”Matteo asked as I dragged my luggage out of the house and towards the car. I’d only packed a few things because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be away.“Milan,” I responded, opening the car’s trunk. “I’ll be staying at the penthouse there until I leave for Willowcreek.”“I shouldn’t be asking this,” he muttered. “But why are you leaving?”I sighed, staring at the pink luggage while I hesitated to close the trunk. Things were going south. I’d broken off the engagement, Alix was missing, and my mother…She wanted to see me. After years of being in a coma and responding to treatment, she was finally awake.And with all the emotional stress happening with me, I needed my mother for support.Leaving was the only thing that felt right. I didn’t want to be in the same place as Axel. It would take much longer for me to move on without having him disrupt it with an unexpected visit.I finally found the strength to shut the trunk and walk into the driver’s seat.

OLIVIAIt had been one week since Alix went missing and five days since I received that call.The caller refused to state what he wanted in exchange for my baby’s release but kept calling with different numbers, deliberately torturing me emotionally.I’d done everything—everything I could possibly think of: begged, cried, even offered myself in exchange, but…I wanted to call Axel and tell him. I wanted to push aside our differences and work together. There were times where I’d stare at my phone, hoping he’d call me with another number… hoping he’d at least find a way to reach out…But he didn’t. And I didn’t bother to reach out because he’d believed that Alix wasn’t his son. Also, if I needed to heal faster, then I’d have to completely stop caring about him, wondering and thinking about what he was doing in my absence.“He called again this morning,” I said over the phone, stirring my tea even though the sugar had long dissolved. “It was a different number this time… again.”Matteo

OLIVIA“Mum…” I called tearfully, leaning forward to hold her hand. “I missed you so much.”She laughed softly, but it wasn’t the same. Nothing about her was. Her face was thinner, her skin too pale, her hair longer than I remembered, falling weakly around her shoulders.For a second, it didn’t feel real. It felt like if I blinked, she’d be gone again.“Olivia…” Her voice was fragile, but her smile lingered on her trembling lips. “You… you came.”I nodded quickly, wiping at my face with the back of my hand. She tried to push herself up, but her body didn’t quite follow.She slipped back and winced slightly at the unsuccessful attempt to sit upright. I gulped down a painful swallow, my eyes twitching.“Hey… no, don’t…” I moved closer immediately, sliding an arm behind her shoulders and helping her sit carefully and slowly. “Easy… I’ve got you.”She sank back against the pillow, her breaths slipping out sharply.“The doctor said…” She coughed, the sound dry and weak. “Said I’ve been…

AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.“You think you know everything, huh?” Isabella smirked, feigning composure, but her eyes said otherwise. “Trust me when I say you don’t.”Ohh, I knew too well. She’d been faking everything from the start, trying to control Olivia, to get everything she’d secretly wanted from the very beginning.I clicked my tongue, my lips pressed into a thin line as I watched her struggle to hold my gaze.“I’m only here because of what you told me over the phone,” I said flatly, not wanting to press further on the past. “You either start talking, or I’ll do whatever I have in mind to you.”“I already told you—I need to find Olivia first.”Heat crawled beneath my skin. “Don’t fucking play with me, Rosetta.”“Matteo said she left a few days ago,” she murmured, changing her mind after viewing my countenance. “But he’s refused to say anything about her whereabouts. Claims he knows nothing about it.”“And what did you find?"She exhaled deeply, glancing over my shoulders as Viper’s

AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI.Everybody in this fucking estate was lying to me.“I’m going to ask Matteo everything he knows,” I said quietly to Isabella. “And in the meantime, you’ll find everything you can about Celyn.”Isabella furrowed her eyebrows. “Why would I ever want to work with you?”“Because you’ve got no other choice,” I muttered, taking one step closer to her. “And you’re going to help me bring down your little boyfriend.”Her lips parted to speak, but no words slipped out. I stepped away without another word, just a cold glance, before turning around to find Matteo.Viper was waiting in the car, searching for all he could find about the ‘fake’ Celyn. I swept through the hallway, stopping right in front of the Morettis’ council room.Matteo stood a few feet away from the entrance, speaking with two other men. His eyes narrowed the moment he noticed me, and I gave him a subtle nod, motioning for his attention before walking in.“You shouldn’t be here,” he said without a muscle mo