I try a third time, knowing it's futile but unable to stop myself. Voicemail again.
I'm about to call a fourth time when I force myself to stop, to lower the phone and take a breath. What am I doing? I'm chasing her down like some desperate man who can't handle a woman's silence. Like someone with no self-control, no dignity, no sense of self-preservation. I can’t force her to pick up the damn phone.
I won't do this.
She's playing games—she has to be. This is another one of her chaotic moves, another manipulation in whatever plan she's running. Remove all her stuff to make me notice the absence, ignore my calls to make me worry, create this void to make me feel it. It's manipulation, pure and simple. Hot and cold, push and pull, the oldest tricks in the book.
I refuse to play along. I won't give her the satisfaction of seeing me rattled.
I pocket my phone and look around my apartment again, taking in the restored order with what should be satisfaction.
It's exactly the way I like it. Clean, organized, minimal. Every surface clear, every item in its place, every aspect of the space under my control again.
Empty. The word whispers through my mind unbidden. Too empty. The silence presses in from all sides, thick and suffocating in a way it never was before.
I pour myself a drink even though it's barely three in the afternoon, even though I have a rule about not drinking during business hours. The scotch burns going down, but it doesn't fill the hollow feeling in my chest.
My phone stays silent on the counter, its dark screen mocking me.
Maybe she’s coming back? I decide to wait and see.
By evening, I'm restless in a way I can't shake, moving through my apartment like a caged animal. Angry at her for leaving without explanation. Confused by her silence. Frustrated by my own reaction to both.
Still no response from Liana. Not a single word, not even to tell me to fuck off.
I could go to her house right now and demand to know what's going on, force her to explain this silence. But that would make me look weak. Emotional. Like I care too much about her silence, like her absence matters more than it should. It would prove that she got to me, that her little game is working exactly as she planned.
Which it isn't. I don't care about the silence.
I'm just frustrated by the game she's playing. That's all this is—frustration with her manipulative tactics, nothing more.
Carlo texts around eight o'clock, the message lighting up my phone with a welcome distraction.
Carlo: Poker game tonight. Same place. You in?
I should say no. Should stay home and figure out what's happening with Liana. But staying in this too-quiet apartment is driving me insane, and maybe some distance will give me perspective.
Instead, I text back immediately: I'm in.
Fuck it. If she wants to ignore me, I'll do the same. Two can play this game.
The poker room is exactly as I remember it from last week—same mahogany table polished to a mirror shine, same leather chairs, same understated luxury that speaks of old money and older connections. The familiar setting should be comforting, but I feel on edge in a way I can't quite shake.
Dmitri and Alexei Volkov are already there when I arrive, positioned on one side of the table like matching bookends. Carlo is shuffling cards, and two other men whose names I can't remember and don't particularly care about round out the group.
"Marcello!" Dmitri greets me with that overly familiar smile of his. "Good to see you, my friend. How's married life treating you?"
"I'm not married yet," I correct him, taking my usual seat.
"But close, no?" He grins wider, showing too many teeth. "What is it now, three weeks?"
"Something like that." I don't want to talk about this, don't want to discuss my upcoming wedding or anything related to it.
"Where's your girl?" Alexei asks, making a show of looking around the room like she might be hiding in the corners. "I was hoping she'd make another appearance."
"She's not here," I say flatly.
"We can see that." Alexei leans back in his chair, studying me with those cold eyes. "Shame. She made the last game much more interesting."
