Of course he did.
My uncle extends his hand. “It’s time you came with us, Lorenzo. Where you belong.”
My chest twists.
I look at my mother. She shakes her head, desperate. “Please. Don’t go. We can run again. We’ll figure it out.”
Run again? Hide again? Pretend again?
No.
I look at Matteo. He watches me with real hope.
“There’s nothing left for me here,” I say quietly.
“Lorenzo, please—”
But I’m already moving.
Toward the car. Toward the truth. Toward an unknown future.
I don’t look back.
Because if I do, I might not be able to leave.
21
Lorenzo
The car ride stretches on.A strange silence sits between us. It hovers, filling the air. It’s heavy but not unwelcome.
I sit in the back seat, boxed in by the two people who just turned my entire life inside out.
My cousin, Matteo, grins. And my uncle is stone-faced.
I lean my head back against the seat, fingers drumming against my thigh.
She’s gone. Victoria.
Gone.
And maybe I should be crushed, but I’m not.
All I feel right now is numb.
Fuck that . . .
I feel angry.
The fucking bitch left me.
She didn’t give a fuck about me.
I gave her everything. And she shits on me.
Left like I was nothing because, as it turns out, to her, I was.
It was all a lie.
