Chapter 2
1139 Words
Serena didn’t sleep.
She sat on the edge of her bed until dawn, the envelope marked Romano lying beside the shoebox beneath her feet. Every creak in the building made her glance toward the door. Every passing car sounded like it had stopped outside her apartment.
By the time the first rays of sunlight filtered through the curtains, she had made exactly one decision.
She wasn’t running anymore.
For five years, she had hidden behind the name Serena Rossi. She had changed apartments twice, jobs three times, and learned to keep her head down. She smiled when customers greeted her, paid her rent on time, and pretended she was an ordinary woman with an ordinary life.
It was a lie she had become frighteningly good at.
She dressed in a cream sweater, dark jeans, and tied her long chestnut hair into a loose braid. Before leaving, she opened the wardrobe and reached behind a stack of neatly folded blankets.
A small metal box.
Inside lay the only things she had kept from her old life.
A silver pocket watch that had belonged to her father.
A diamond engagement ring Cristiano had slipped onto her finger the night everything fell apart.
And a faded family photograph.
She traced her mother’s smiling face with her thumb.
“I haven’t given up,” she whispered. “I promise.”
Then she locked the box away and left.
The bell above the flower shop chimed as Serena unlocked the front door.
The scent of roses, lavender, and fresh eucalyptus wrapped around her instantly. It was one of the few places that still brought her peace.
Flowers never lied.
People did.
Her employer, Signora Lucia, emerged from the back room carrying a bucket of sunflowers.
“You’re early.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
The older woman frowned.
“You look pale.”
“I’m fine.”
Lucia gave her a skeptical look but didn’t press further.
For the next few hours, Serena buried herself in work.
She trimmed stems.
Wrapped bouquets in brown paper.
Helped an elderly husband choose lilies for his wife’s birthday.
The sight of the white petals made her chest tighten, but she forced herself to smile.
“She’ll love them,” she said softly.
“I hope so,” the old man replied with a grin. “Forty-eight years of marriage. I still get nervous buying flowers.”
Serena smiled after he left.
A love that lasted forty-eight years.
She wondered what that felt like.
Her smile faded almost as quickly as it came.
She had once believed she’d have that kind of future.
A small house.
A quiet life.
Cristiano beside her.
Instead, she had ashes, nightmares, and a name she couldn’t even use.
Just after noon, the shop phone rang.
Lucia answered, listened for a moment, then looked toward Serena.
“It’s for you.”
Serena frowned.
“No one calls me here.”
“Well… someone just did.”
She wiped her hands on her apron and took the receiver.
“This is Serena.”
For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then an elderly man’s voice spoke.
“Miss Romano.”
Her blood ran cold.
Not Rossi.
Romano.
The name she had buried.
The name only ghosts seemed to remember.
“I believe,” the man continued quietly, “it’s time we talked about who murdered your family.”
Serena’s grip tightened around the receiver until her knuckles turned white.
“…Who is this?”
“My name is Alessandro Conti.”
The name stirred a distant memory.
Retired Detective Alessandro Conti.
He had been one of the lead investigators assigned to the Romano m******e before the case was abruptly closed.
“I don’t believe you,” she said, forcing steel into her voice. “If you’re really Conti, why wait five years?”
A weary sigh drifted through the line.
“Because five years ago, I didn’t have proof.”
“And now you do?”
“Now I have enough to get us both killed.”
Silence stretched between them.
Serena glanced toward the front window of the flower shop. Outside, pedestrians moved along the busy Milan street, oblivious to the conversation that had just turned her world upside down.
“What kind of proof?” she asked.
“I won’t discuss it over the phone.”
“Then tell me one thing only.”
Another pause.
“The official report said my family died in a mafia war.”
“It was a lie.”
Her heart skipped.
“The attack was planned,” Conti continued quietly. “Your family wasn’t caught in the crossfire. They were hunted.”
The words struck like a physical blow.
Every nightmare.
Every unanswered question.
Every year spent chasing dead ends.
She had always known it.
Someone had simply confirmed it.
“You know who ordered it?” she whispered.
“I know where to begin looking.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I’m willing to give over an unsecured line.”
She closed her eyes.
The warning card flashed through her mind.
Don’t meet the detective tomorrow.
Someone already knew about this.
Someone had tried to stop it before it happened.
“When?” she asked.
“Tomorrow. Eight o’clock.”
“Where?”
“Santa Maria delle Grazie.”
“The church?”
“The small courtyard behind it.”
She frowned.
“Why there?”
“Because cameras don’t cover every entrance, and the tourists give us cover.”
His voice dropped even lower.
“Miss Romano… if anyone asks, we’ve never spoken.”
Before she could reply, the line went dead.
Serena slowly lowered the receiver.
Lucia looked at her from across the counter.
“Everything all right?”
She forced a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Wrong number.”
It was a terrible lie.
Lucia clearly didn’t believe it, but she nodded and returned to arranging flowers.
Serena stood motionless.
The detective had confirmed what she’d spent five years trying to prove.
Her family hadn’t died in random violence.
Someone had wanted them erased.
And now someone wanted to stop her from learning why.
She reached into her coat pocket and unfolded the cream colored card she had received with the lilies.
Don’t meet the detective tomorrow.
The elegant handwriting seemed to mock her.
Was it a threat?
Or a warning?
If the sender wanted her dead, why warn her away from the meeting?
Unless…
They didn’t want the detective dead.
They wanted him silenced before he could tell her the truth.
A cold realization settled over her.
Whether the anonymous sender was friend or enemy, one thing was certain.
Tomorrow’s meeting would change everything.
And despite every instinct screaming at her to stay away…
Serena Romano had already decided she was going.
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