Then he did.
And when his eyes met mine, everything inside me went still.
For a heartbeat, the world stopped — air, thought, sound — all of it cut out, like the universe held its breath with me.My stomach dropped.My knees went weak.
No.This couldn’t be real.
But it was.
Because right there, standing in front of me, was the man I’d spent years trying to find...the man I’d cried for, cursed for, dreamed of.The man I’d loved past the point of reason.
Alessandro.
The name slammed through my chest like a bullet and left me breathless.
He was every memory and every nightmare at once — the scent of gunpowder and cologne, the ghost that never stopped haunting me.
My fingers dug into the door behind me as if it could hold me upright.I didn’t know if I wanted to run to him or run away.
How long did I stand there?Seconds?Minutes?It didn’t matter.The room tilted, my pulse stuttered, and the truth hit me so hard I almost laughed.
I’d told myself I wanted to see him again.That I was ready.
I lied.
Here we were.After all the blood, all the ghosts, all the years — face to face.
Here, we meet once again.
I did promise you that, Alessandro.
CHAPTER 14
Alessandro's POV
The pain hit first — a stabbing, waking ache like someone had smashed my skull overnight.I rolled under the sheets, rubbed my face until the world stopped spinning into a pale rectangle.The ceiling was the same dull slab it always was and I hated it with the kind of boredom that tasted like teeth.
