VELVET SHADOWS

Epilogue — Ghosts in the Crowd

It had been two years since I walked away from that safehouse, since the first sunrise I watched without him.

I never saw his body. Never saw his name in the papers. Just… nothing.

Some days, that was worse than knowing.

I’d built a quiet life in Florence — a small apartment above a bookshop, mornings spent with espresso and the sound of church bells. I told myself I was safe now. I told myself I’d moved on.

And then I saw him.

---

It was a rainy evening, the streetlamps throwing golden halos into the mist. I was carrying groceries, head down, when I felt it — the unmistakable prickle at the back of my neck.

I looked up.

Across the street, under the awning of a shuttered café, stood a man in a dark coat. He was watching me, a faint smile curving his lips. His hair was shorter, his face a little leaner, but the eyes…

Those midnight eyes.

Our gazes locked, and the world narrowed to the space between us. My pulse roared in my ears, my hands tightening around the grocery bag.

He didn’t cross the street.

He didn’t wave.

He just touched two fingers to the brim of his coat… and vanished into the rain.

---

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I lay awake, replaying those few seconds over and over.

Maybe it was a ghost.

Maybe it was just a stranger who happened to have his eyes.

Or maybe Adrian Blackwell was still out there, somewhere in the velvet shadows — watching me the way he always had.

And maybe… he always would.

THE END