The rain started sometime after midnight, pounding against the windows like the echo of her heartbeat. Aria lay awake in the guest room, staring at the ceiling, her chest rising and falling with uneven breaths. She hadn't slept a second since walking out of Luca's study. His words replayed endlessly, i already knew who you are.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his face, the raw desperation in his steel-gray eyes, the way his voice had cracked as if he were bleeding inside. But none of it erased the betrayal. He had kept the most important truth of her life hidden from her, and that wound cut deeper than any knife.
She didn't hear the footsteps until they stopped outside her door. A faint knock followed.
"Aria." His voice was low, gravelly from drink, or maybe from pain.
She clenched her fists against the bedsheets. "Go away."
