Serenity
I didn’t know what I expected to feel when Luca handed me the manila envelope. Maybe fear. Maybe the faintest glimmer of relief that I was finally going to understand. But all I felt was a pit of dread deep in my stomach. Whatever was in that envelope wasn’t going to be good. I could feel it in my bones.
The words Luca had said still echoed in my mind: "The deal that will change everything for both of us." The weight of that sentence crushed the air from my lungs. I had been trying so hard to make sense of everything, to understand him, to understand us, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face whatever secret he had been keeping from me all along.
I stared at the envelope in my hands, the edges crinkling under my grip. I couldn’t look at Luca—not yet. Not when he was standing
