The message didn’t disappear.
It stayed on her screen, sharp and undeniable.
Matteo knows.
Giulia didn’t realise she had stopped breathing until Sofia touched her arm.
“Giulia… what is it?”
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
Because saying it aloud would make it real in a way she couldn’t undo.
Chiara stepped closer. “You’re scaring me.”
Giulia finally lifted her gaze.
“Matteo knows.”
The room shifted instantly.
Sofia’s posture straightened. “Knows what?”
Giulia swallowed.
“Everything.”
No one asked her to clarify.
They didn’t need to.
Because “everything” in a situation like this—
Was never simple.
Alessandro went still.
Not visibly.
Not dramatically.
But something in him tightened, like a storm pulling itself inward before it broke.
“How?” Sofia asked.
Giulia
