The air didn’t move.
Not after that.
Not after the headline.
Not after the name that had quietly rewritten everything Giulia thought she knew.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she stared at Matteo’s phone, the image of her father burned into her mind in a way it never had been before.
He looked… different.
Not older.
Not younger.
Just—
Sharper.
Like the version of him she knew had been softened over time.
“This isn’t real,” she said under her breath.
Matteo didn’t take the phone back.
“It is.”
“No,” she shook her head, stepping away. “This is edited. Or fake. Or—something.”
“You know it’s not.”
Her chest tightened.
Because deep down—
She did.
The resemblance.
The posture.
The way the man beside him stood like someone used to power.
It wasn’t a coincidence.
It couldn’
