And for the first time in my life…
…I don’t know whether I want to throw up—
or kill him.
Someone Is Behind Him
I don’t know how long I stand there staring at Romeo’s name.
Long enough for my eyes to burn.Long enough for the letters to blur.Long enough for anger to crawl up my spine and sink its teeth into the base of my skull.
ROMEO.
My brother.My blood.The son who laughed at everything—especially Giovanni’s worst—like the world was a joke only he understood.
Now his name sits in my father’s private ledger like a brand.
My chest tightens.
Anger hits first—hot, blinding, vicious.Grief slips in under it.Denial wraps around both, whispering, No. Not him. Not like this.
But the page doesn’t care.Giovanni’s handwriting doesn’t lie.
I shove the torn slip back into the ledger before I tear it myself, slam the book closed, and force it onto the shelf with more power than necessary. The sound cracks through the vault—sharp, echoing, final.
That’s it.I can’t stay down here anymore.
I need air.I need distance from Giovanni’s ghost.I need my hands around Romeo’s throat long enough to hear the truth straight from his lying mouth.
I turn toward the door, pulse roaring, jaw clenched until it aches. My boots scrape the cold stone, the hollow sound following me like a second heartbeat.
He warned you, a voice hisses.He told you not to open this place.He knew what you’d find.
My fingers curl into fists.
Good.He should be terrified.
I’m three strides from the door when it hits me.
A shift in the air.Small. Sharp. Wrong.
Too subtle to be sound.Too real to be imagined.
The instinct you only trust after growing up in a house where turning your back meant you were safe—
—or stupid.
The hairs at the back of my neck lift.
I stop.
Silence.
No breathing.No footsteps.Just the low thrum of blood in my ears and the steady tick of my heartbeat.
Then—
A footfall.
