I glanced up at her and managed a small smile.The idea didn’t sound bad at all.I’d been trapped inside this place for days, with walls pressing in on me like a cage.The thought of fresh air felt like a lifeline.
I agreed and tried to stand, but Matt stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.“Eat something first,” he insisted.
So I did.A few bites, enough to satisfy him.Then Mia led me outside.
The house I’d been staying in — my temporary prison — sat a short distance from the estate.When we reached the gardens, I stopped in my tracks.My breath hitched.
It wasn’t a garden — it was a masterpiece.
Vibrant flowers of every color framed wide marble paths.Fountains glimmered under the sunlight.A driveway stretched beyond, lined with black cars with tinted windows — silent, sleek, dangerous.For a brief second, I forgot everything.The fear.The anger.The ache.
“This is so beautiful,” I whispered, taking it all in.
“I know,” Mia said brightly.“Alessandro insists on keeping it like this.I don’t know why, but he’s obsessed with this garden.”
I turned to look at her, smiling faintly.“This is all Alessandro’s?”
“Yes.The mansion, the cars, the little house you’re staying in, the garden — all of it belongs to him.”
Wow.
I remembered when Alessandro used to dream of this — training under his father, building his own empire.I used to imagine being by his side when he did.And now he’d done it all without me.The thought tore through me like glass.
We kept walking.My eyes landed on a section of the garden covered in white roses, arranged perfectly across the far side.My chest tightened; tears threatened to spill.
White roses.My favorite.And Alessandro knew that.
“Hey,” Mia said softly, tugging on my hand.“Do you want to come into the estate?We could have dinner together — you and me.”
For a moment, I hesitated.Going inside meant stepping into his space.I didn’t want him to think I was trying to force my way back into his life.But then again, he was the one who brought me here.If anyone should feel uneasy, it should be him.
I nodded slowly.
Mia smiled and squeezed my hand.In just a few days, she’d become the one person who made this bearable.Like a younger sister I never had.
As we crossed the garden, I glanced back at the mansion rising before us — grand, cold, magnificent.From here, I could see it all.The empire he’d built.
Alessandro had finally become everything he wanted to be.
He just did it without me.
We walked a little further, nearing the entrance of the estate — and that’s when it happened.
A deafening sound split through the air.
The crack of a gunshot echoed across the garden, loud enough to shake the ground beneath us.My entire body jolted.I froze mid-step, trembling where I stood as the sharp ring of the shot echoed in my ears.Birds scattered overhead, their wings slicing the air in chaos.
Then I saw it.
Just a few meters ahead, a body — limp, lifeless — collapsed to the ground.My eyes widened, following its fall until they lifted and locked on the figure standing over it.
Alessandro.
He stood there, calm and unflinching, a gun still clutched in his hand.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.The world tilted.My mind refused to process what my eyes were seeing — refused to believe that the man I once loved, the man I used to dream about, had just ended someone’s life in front of me.
I knew he was in the mafia.I knew killing was part of this world.But seeing it...watching it happen...it dragged me straight back to a time I’d buried deep.
