afi

pulled out

I'd sent in the seconds before Dante grabbed me. D

ssed against wet brick, still stupid e

screen. A muscle

dialed m

e said. "The little coward is

eaker, sharp with wine and irritation. "S

nts att

in whatever h

r ended

o my father by a line I couldn't see but couldn't break. The next, I wa

l police

sk, soaked to the bone, he

's been missing for fourteen hou

sing person reports require auth

ans are the

ex

file a report. They don't care about her. But she's missi

. It was the sound of someone who knew she was

own helplessness re

icked up a di

ognized them-soldiers from my father's crew. Marco and Enzo. Men w

ed Aria by

a tantrum. Seeking attention

ou don't u

to the rain and threw h

on scraped palms, soaked and shaking, tears cutt

RAF

ould call me back from wherever I'd gone. Like the fo

I'm right here. I'm sorry about the l

ldn't h

streaming down her face, and she cri

to my father tightened, and I was dragged backward through the da

-

back at the estate, following my f

t my head down. I'd moved quickly through the corridors, avoiding eye contact with the portraits of Family patr

in the plaster. The way the chandelier light caught the fingerprints

rose up wit

correcting my stance. "Again," he said when I missed. "Again," when I hit the target. "Again," until my arms ached an

and asked him to come home for cake. An hour

me I'd k

oss the dining table. Lobster. Shrimp. Clams. She knew I was allerg

" she

he shel

jaw and force

My parents watched from their chairs. They didn't call a doctor. They dragged m

hattered on the concrete below. The titanium plate and seven scr

t me with her purse while the

issed. So dramatic. A

afia relatives praised me at a family dinner. My mother waited

nd a cheat, and you will nev

the ones I'd bought myself because my parents h

ps and the desperate hope that if I just achieved enough-if I just scored hig

never

ied before my final exam results came out. I had died without ever ac

was in th

uca's chair-had an empty plate set before it, a candle burning beside

k echoed thr

doors sw

walke

iv

he fingers of a pregnant woman. My mother's wineglass slipped from her fingers and

l seconds, no

ver his face, his shoulders, his chest, checking that he was real. My father foll

y mother's voice was a s

wered h

UV. I wanted to escape the blood oath. I wanted to run away with Elena."

ind her like she was shi

ked out, pulling Luca into h

The same hands that had bolted my windows shut. The same hands

air with a gentleness I'd spe

ache, every hunger, every desperate attempt to earn a love that was never mine to

you for eight years. And you're holding

couldn'

never

-