The phone screen blinked on her nightstand.
A message from the one number she would never forget.
“One word from you, and I’ll come.”
Nicoletta stared at the screen as if hypnotized.
One word. She could say it… But then everything would fall apart. The House. The clan. Lives.
She sank onto the edge of her bed, burying her face in her hands. Her shoulders trembled, but she didn’t cry. Tears were for the weak—and she wasn’t allowed to be weak.
“I betrayed myself,” she whispered into the quiet.
If she had chosen herself, she would have stayed with him. Because he was the only man her heart had ever reached for. The only one who had ever truly seen her.
Her gaze shifted to the old leather notebook lying on the table. Inside were sketches, fragments of dreams—her real life, the one she’
