With inevitability.
If I stay—
I don’t save him.
I rot everything he’s trying to protect.
And that’s when it finally turns real:
I am not the woman who heals this family.
I am the disaster it learns to survive.
And I don’t know how to live knowing that.
I only know one thing—
For the first time in my life…
Walking away might be the most violent thing I ever do.
Pia Makes a Choice
Emiliano moves.
Not fast.Just closer.
The step that assumes the ground will make room for him.
I stiffen when his shadow crawls over my boots.
“You should leave,” he says quietly.
Not a command.Not a threat.
A verdict.
“For their sake.”
“No,” Santino snaps instantly.
The sound of his voice instead of my name twists something vicious under my ribs. He steps toward Emiliano before I can breathe, anger flashing hot and bright through the grief carved into him.
Emiliano doesn’t look impressed.
He smirks.
Not wide.Not amused.
Just enough to let Santino know exactly where this ends.
“For yours, then,” Emiliano says.
The air in my lungs evaporates.
I close my eyes.
Not because I’m weak.
