The night clung to the Morano estate like a shroud.
The lamps flickered dimly in the corridors, and silence ruled the halls, broken only by the mechanical hum of the machines keeping Luca tethered to this world.
Alessia had not moved from his side.
Her fingers had traced the same line across his knuckles a thousand times, memorising every ridge, every scar.
Her eyes were red-rimmed, her lips raw from whispered prayers that had not ceased since he collapsed into her arms.
But it was not only Luca's fragile breaths that haunted her now.
The message.
That cursed message.
"The girl you chased still breathes"....
She knew it was from Bianca and the name alone left a bitter taste on Alessia's tongue, an ache in her chest sharp enough to steal her breath.
She had once thought Bianca is gone forever, banished by her own lies, her manipulative games, her poisoned schemes.
But Bianca was back. And if the message was right, she wasn't just back, she was waiting.
