Semua Bab STOLEN BY THE DON: Bab 91 - Bab 100

"Well, that's a start," Sienna said. "Care to elaborate?" Luca stood, moving toward her slowly. "I've concluded that twenty years of obsession created patterns I don't know how to break. That seeing Serena, meeting her, hearing her voice, watching her perform vulnerability. It triggered those patterns even though intellectually I know she's not what I thought." He stopped a few feet away, close enough for conversation but respecting the distance she was maintaining. "I've concluded," he continued, "that I don't know how to trust my own feelings because I was wrong for so long. That I'm terrified I'm making another mistake. Not with you, but in believing I'm capable of genuine feeling instead of just evolved obsession." "So Serena was right," Sienna said quietly. "You can't trust that what you feel for me is real because you were wrong about her for so long." "She was partly right," Luca corrected. "But also wrong because what I feel for you isn't the same as what I felt abo

Their voices faded as they moved toward the far wing. Sienna looked at Matteo. "Still think he's not choosing her?" Matteo had no answer. --- That night, Luca came to find Sienna in her old room, the room she'd moved back to permanently three days ago. "We need to talk," he said through the door. "Now you want to talk," Sienna said, not moving to open it. "After a week of barely acknowledging I exist unless Serena's watching?" "That's not fair," Luca said. "Neither is this situation," Sienna countered. "But here we are." "Let me in," Luca said. "Please." Sienna considered refusing, considered forcing him to actually work for her attention the way he worked for Serena's approval but exhaustion won out. She opened the door. Luca looked tired, shadows under his eyes, stress evident in the tension of his shoulders. "You've been avoiding me." "You've been busy," Sienna said. "I didn't want to interrupt your reunion." "It's not a reunion," Luca said, stepping int

"Then why am I up here alone while they're down there together?" Sienna asked. "Why does he seek her out first thing in the morning and last thing at night? Why do they have inside conversations I'm not part of? Why does he look at her the way he used to look at me?" Matteo was quiet, which was answer enough. "I should leave," Sienna said. "Not the estate—I'm still his prisoner, apparently. But this—whatever this was between us. I should end it before it destroys what's left of my dignity." "Don't," Matteo said. "Give him time to sort through this. He's confused, not choosing." "That's what you said before," Sienna reminded him. "And look where we are now. He's confused again, or still, or always will be when it comes to her. And I'm tired of being the understanding one while he figures out whether his fantasy or his reality matters more." Before Matteo could respond, voices drifted up from below. Luca and Serena, walking through the hallway together, their voices comfortab

"But I am watching," Matteo said. "And I'm telling you, she's dangerous. Not because she's Viktor's enemy, but because she's becoming your obsession again and obsession makes you stupid, Luca. Makes you blind to what you're sacrificing for fantasy." He left before Luca could respond, heading toward the security office to implement the guard changes. Behind him, he heard Luca sit heavily in his chair, the weight of truth or denial settling over him. --- Matteo found Sienna in the art studio an hour later, working on a painting that made his chest tighten. Two figures on opposite sides of a canvas, one reaching toward light, one sinking into darkness. The reaching figure had Luca's features. The sinking one had Sienna's. "That's bleak," Matteo observed from the doorway. "That's honest," Sienna corrected without turning. "How bad is it? The threat from Viktor, I mean. I heard increased security protocols being implemented." So she'd heard the activity but hadn't been briefed. Ex

"You're not the wrong twin," Luca said desperately."Then prove it," Sienna challenged, stopping her packing to look at him directly. "Make her leave. Right now. Tell her she has to go, that your obligation to me is greater than your obligation to save her. Prove through actions that I matter more than your fantasy."Luca opened his mouth, but no words came. He stood there, frozen, unable to say what she needed to hear."That's what I thought," Sienna said quietly, the anger draining from her voice, leaving only exhaustion. "You can't. Even now, even knowing she's empty, even claiming you love me, you can't choose me over her. The fantasy wins. It always wins."She finished packing, zipped the bag closed, and picked it up. "I'll be gone by morning. Don't try to stop me. Don't make this harder than it already is.""Sienna..." Luca reached for her but she stepped away."Don't touch me," she said. "Don't make promises you won't keep. Don't tell me you love me while proving you don't. J