CHAPTER TEN_THE EDGE OF SOMETHING UNSAID
545 Words
CHAPTER TEN — THE EDGE OF SOMETHING UNSAID
ALESSANDRO
She is starting to stay longer in rooms I enter.
Not because she has to.
Because she chooses to.
That thought unsettles me more than I admit.
Marco noticed again.
“You’re getting worse,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re letting her affect your decisions.”
I paused.
“I’m not.”
But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t fully true.
Because when someone reported a potential threat near the estate, my first thought wasn’t security.
It was her.
Always her.
And that should not have been the priority.
That evening, I found her outside again.
Wind softer than usual.
She was standing near the fountain, staring at the water like she was thinking too deeply again.
“You think too much,” I said as I approached.
She didn’t turn immediately.
“You say that like it’s a problem.”
“It is,” I replied.
That made her finally look at me.
“But you think too,” she said quietly.
Silence.
Not denial.
Not agreement.
Just truth sitting between us.
I stepped closer than usual this time.
Not enough to overwhelm her.
Just enough that she would notice.
“You shouldn’t trust me,” I said suddenly.
That made her pause.
Her eyes searched mine carefully.
“I don’t fully,” she admitted.
That should have satisfied me.
It didn’t.
Instead, I found myself speaking again before I could stop it.
“But you’re starting to.”
Silence.
Longer this time.
The wind moved softly between us.
And for the first time since she entered my world…
I wasn’t sure if I wanted her closer…
or further away.
Because something inside me had already started choosing for both of us.
And I didn’t know how to stop it.
Later that night, I stood alone in my office staring at the city lights through the large windows while Marco spoke behind me about shipments I barely cared about listening to.
“You missed half of what I said,” he muttered.
“I heard enough.”
“No,” he replied calmly. “You didn’t.”
I exhaled quietly.
Marco leaned back slightly against the desk.
“She’s changing you.”
I looked at him coldly.
“That sounds dramatic.”
“It sounds true.”
The room fell silent.
I hated conversations like this because they forced me to look too closely at things I preferred controlling quietly.
“She’s making you softer,” he continued.
“No,” I said immediately.
But the answer lacked certainty.
Marco noticed.
Of course he did.
“That’s the problem,” he said quietly. “You don’t even realize it yet.”
My jaw tightened slightly.
Before I could respond, movement outside the office windows caught my attention.
Down in the garden below—
Sera.
Walking alone again beneath the soft lights.
My focus shifted immediately.
Instinctively.
And Marco saw that too.
“You see?” he murmured.
I ignored him and kept watching her instead.
Because the truth was becoming harder to deny now.
The estate no longer felt the same without her inside it.
And that realization felt far more dangerous than any enemy I had ever faced.
- Writer
