Everything in her posture screamsstay back. Shoulders angled away, hand smoothing her dress, body small and closed.
“We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t.” Her voice shakes once. Not with fear, but with rage at the fact that I didn’t listen to what she asked of me.
Valentina steps closer to her, like I’m a threat. I ignore her.
“Mara—”
“I said no.”
She turns her back to me and walks off with Valentina and Alessia trailing her.
She sits pressedagainst the door, as far from me as she can get. Small. Quiet. Her fingers rub at the fabric over her arm.
She’s regulating. Or trying to.
“Mara,” I say, keeping my tone even. “We’re not ending the night like this.”
She doesn’t answer. She just moves—fast. Cleaner than I expected.
My gun is in her hand before I even register the shift of weight. She lifts it. Steady. No hesitation.
My driver jolts. “Sir?—”
“Keep driving,” I say, eyes locked on my wife.
She finally looks at me. But it’s not the usual fire. It’s blank. Emotionless. A kind of quiet I don’t know how to fix.
“Talk again and I’ll shoot you.” She means it.
I lean forward until the barrel touches my chest. Hard. If this is the only way to get something real from her, I’ll take it.
“If that’s what you want, go ahead.”
Her breath catches—not fear, disgust. With me.
“You think dying fixes anything?” she asks.
“Mara—”
“Don’t.” Her voice cracks on the word. “Don’t say my name. You don’t get to anymore.”
She lowers the gun, but not because she’s softened. Because she’s done. I can see it in the way her shoulders drop, the way she won’t look at me again.
“You’re pathetic,” she whispers. “And nothing you say will undo what you broke.”
She turns to the window, fixing her hair like that’s something she can control. Straightening her dress. Shutting me out piece by piece.
My fingers tap once against my thigh before I stop them. A tell.
I watch her in the reflection of the glass. She’s breathing. She’s alive. She’s within reach. And for the first time, it hits me clean and sharp.
She’s no longer mine to protect. Not because someone took her from me, but because I pushed her so far that she walked away on her own.
52
NICOLO
