She’s not just gone.
She’s gone where she shouldn’t be.
And, fuck me—I know exactly where that is.
Vicious anger flares up fast and sharp, burning through my chest.
“Pia… what the hell are you doing?”
I step back into the hallway, heart pounding, adrenaline sharpening the edges of my vision. Something ancient, something violent, something that sounds a hell of a lot like my father wakes in my blood.
If I don’t find her, someone else will.
Someone who won’t think twice about dragging her back in pieces.
I stop at the top of the stairs, breathing hard, staring into the darkened church below.
She’s under my feet.
I know it.I feel it in the ribs Giovanni cracked.In the instincts he beat into me like scripture.
She’s not avoiding me.
She’s in danger.
And God help the man who thinks he’ll touch her before I get there.
The Pull Beneath His Feet
The church feels wrong the second I step inside.Too still.Too cold.Too fucking empty.
My footsteps echo across the marble like they don’t belong here anymore — like the building itself is holding its breath, waiting for something to break. I move fast, scanning pews, side chapels, every shadowed alcove where she might’ve hidden or cried or prayed.
Nothing.Not a whisper of her.Not a footprint.Not even a faint trace of her scent.
The courtyard is the same. Silent. Dead air hung heavy beneath the storm clouds.
“She didn’t just walk out,” I mutter — a rough growl swallowed by the cavernous space.
Something pulls me back inside. A low tug in my ribs, like instinct has wrapped a fist around my spine and dragged. I follow it without thinking.
The altar looms ahead in the dim candlelight. Familiar. Reverent. And suddenly threatening.
Giovanni’s words slam back into my skull:
The sin lies buried beneath us.
I stop.Frozen.
My gaze drops slowly — to the floorboards near the base of the altar. The floorboards don't align correctly. Barely. Subtle. But undeniably wrong.
I feel it before I move toward it — the certainty coiling in my gut, dread crawling up the back of my neck.
“Don’t tell me you were this fucking stupid,” I breathe.
But I already know she was.
Pia doesn’t scare easily.Pia doesn’t stop when she should.Pia doesn’t listen.
