For a moment, my mind went completely blank. I wasn't trying to get back at Dante. I wasn't trying to make anyone jealous or prove anything. I wasn't even angry enough for that anymore. I was just… tired. A kind of exhaustion that went deeper than anything I had felt back when I was eighteen, still naive enough to believe in fairytales and forever. Back then, loving Dante had felt like everything. Now, all I wanted was something simple. Quiet. Peace.
So I laughed it off, turning it into a joke before it could become anything real.
"Sure," I said lightly, waving it away as if it meant nothing. "Once I'm free of the Family, I'll come find you."
Then I walked away without looking back.
Not long after I got home, my phone buzzed in my hand. I glanced down.
A message from Luca.
[I'm done waiting.]
The words were simple, but they carried a weight that lingered.
I stepped out onto the balcony almost without thinking, the cool night air wrapping around me. When I looked down, his car was still parked below on the private drive, just past the iron gate. He hadn't left.