All Chapters of AFTER FIVE YEARS, HE FOUND ME: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

ADRIANA’S POVI stood near the window and watched the change settle over Alessandro the moment Rocco spoke Cassian’s name. His jaw tightened. The warmth that had lingered after Garcia and Liora left instantly drained away, replaced by the cold focus I had seen on him in darker rooms and blood hunting situations. He said nothing at first. He only stared at the closed door as if the answer was already waiting on the other side. My mind began sorting through every person who had known the surgery schedule. I knew about his surgery, yet I had contacted no one outside these walls. Why would I? Rocco knew about it, and betrayal from him was unthinkable. The hospital staff knew, but they had no reason to connect me to the De Santis family and even less courage to risk the Orsini name. Alessandro’s security team lived by loyalty; snitching on their own boss would end them faster than any rival. Garcia and Liora had learned of the surgery only after the surgery, they had known because they co

ADRIANA’S POVI left Luca’s room with a lighter heart than I had carried in days. He had smiled when he saw me, asked for his father, then asked for another drawing pad, and drifted back toward sleep looking stronger than the morning before. The nurse at the station took my order for Alessandro’s food and promised it would reach the room within twenty minutes. I walked the quiet corridor back toward his door with the simple plan of sitting beside him until the tray arrived.Voices drifted through the half-open doorway before I reached it. Rocco’s low tone mixed with Alessandro’s sharper one. I stopped short of the threshold and stayed in the shadow of the wall, not meaning to eavesdrop at first, yet the words pulled me closer. “Boss, this is everything I could gather on the doctor, Cassian Vale,” Rocco said as rustled papers followed next. “His medical license, hospital records, and family history. On the surface he looks clean, a dedicated pediatric cardiologist with a solid reputat

ADRIANA’S POVI stood in the bedroom of the house that now felt only half like home and stared at the clean clothes I had just put on. The shower had washed away the hospital scent. The meal Mrs. Drew set in front of me had filled the hollow place in my stomach. Yet none of it settled the restlessness that kept pulling me back toward the hospital. Alessandro and Luca were waiting for me. They were alone. Two hours had already stretched longer than I could bear. I picked up the new phone Rocco had handed to me before I left the hospital. Alessandro had asked him to get me a new phone just a couple of hours after my phone was destroyed by Cassian. I thought of calling Alessandro, to tell him I missed him. But I stopped myself. Instead I picked my bag and walked toward the front door. Mrs. Drew appeared in the living room as if she had been waiting for the sound of my footsteps. “Signora, you can’t leave just yet,” she said. “I have rested. I have eaten. What else am I supposed to do

ADRIANA’S POVFour days had passed since the afternoon Alessandro confessed to leaving the hospital. The morning light filtered through the windows of the discharge lounge while I signed the final papers. Rocco stood beside me and handled the payment details with the same quiet efficiency he brought to everything else. The account cleared in full without a single question. Luca sat on a nearby chair swinging his legs and watching every movement with bright eyes. When I turned and confirmed that we were truly leaving he bounced in place.“Are we really going home, Mama? No more hospitals and painful injections!” he squealed excitedly. “Yes, Papa Bear,” I replied, smiling. “No more hospital stays and painful injections.” His smile stretched wide. “Is it a big house, Mama? Papa’s house is a mansion, right? Please tell me that we are not going back to the small place with the thin walls?”I smoothed his hair. “We are not going back there, baby. We are moving into your father’s house.”

ADRIANA’S POVI woke up to an empty space beside me on the bed. The sheets still held a faint trace of his warmth and the clean scent of his skin, proof that Alessandro had slipped into the room sometime after midnight and left again before dawn. I had fallen asleep alone after waiting for him to finish whatever kept him locked in the study with Rocco. And in the quiet hours of the morning he must have returned, got under the covers, and pulled me close. The evidence said he had done exactly that, yet now he was gone again. Upstairs the house felt unusually calm. I checked the clock on the nightstand, it was eight thirty already. By this hour Luca normally would have bounced through the door demanding attention and breakfast. The silence made me sit up faster than usual. I pulled on a robe and stepped into the hallway. His bedroom door stood open and the bed was empty. Curiosity mixed with a low thread of unease as I started down the stairs. The moment I reached the ground floor t