Valerio is on his way.
But Giacomo is here.A blade pressed to my ribs.
And every secondstretches into something sharp.
He drags me toward the tree line—the far edge of the park, where shade swallows sound and no one dares wander. It’s quiet enough for an execution.
And he knows it.And I know it.
He shoves me forward. My knees buckle, but I catch myself before I hit the dirt. I turn slowly, forcing my spine straight, forcing my lungs to work.
“What do you want, Giacomo?” My voice is steady enough to surprise even me. Inside, I’m unraveling thread by thread, but he can’t see that. He feeds on it.
He tilts his head, twirling the dagger lazily between his fingers. The blade flashes once, bright as a cruel smile.
“You look well, cara. The years have kissed you kindly.” His gaze drags across me. “Like aged wine… richer, headier, more dangerous.”
I don’t give him the satisfaction of shuddering.
“What do you want?” I repeat, sharper.
He sighs dramatically. “Always impatient.” The dagger rises slowly, the tip hovering between my eyes. “You wounded me, Beatrice. You slipped under my guard and sliced through everything I built.”
He steps close enough that I smell the cologne he used to wear. Now, it coats the inside of my throat like poison.
“You’re an ant,” he whispers. “A little insect on the wheel of this world. And somehow, you crushed me.”
A chill breaks across my skin.
I don’t move.I don’t blink.
“You didn’t just betray me,”he continues, pacing now, boots snapping twigs beneath them. “You humiliated me. Undermined my title. Ruined my standing. Your husband—” the word curdles in his mouth “—stole what was mine. The power. The throne. The future I carved with my own hands. And you—” he points the dagger at my chest “—you lit the match that burned it down.”
He spins back toward me, eyes wild, unhinged. “And the worst part?”
Silence drips between us.
“You made me question my own mind.” His voice trembles—not with sorrow, but with something far more cracked. “You made me believe I was insane. You were mine. Mine. And yet you let him touch you. You let him fuck you.”
The air leaves my lungs like a blow. But I stand my ground. I keep my chin high.
I will not givehim my fear—not the way he wants it.
He steps so close the dagger grazes my collarbone, cold and hungry.
“You thought you could disappear into his world,” he murmurs. “You thought you could hide from me, rebuild without me, start a family without me…”
His smile sharpens.
“But you forgot one thing.”
He leans in.
“You forgot who fathered your son.”
He closes the distance like a bullet—no warning, no breath between us—and suddenly my back slams into the tree. Bark tears into my spine. My head cracks hard enough against the trunk that my ears ring.
My phone slips from my hand and hits the ground, skidding into the leaves.
