“I like her,” Rosa tells us all, and the three of us face her, and she smiles. “What, would you prefer me to hate her? There is something about her, once she has the right man next to her, I think your little lamb will become a wolf when she needs to.”
“You don’t think I’m the right man for her?” I ask, because one thing I do know, while she’s in this school no one will be touching her.
“Crazy, but I think it’s someone like you she needs next to her. A fighter, someone who has enough rage in them to burn the world.” I smile at Rosa’s words, because for Aoife I’m about to burn the world, and start a war.
“Then let’s plan this right,” Milo says. “We are going back this weekend. We speak to Grandfather, but we do it united. One voice. Three sons.”
“Thanks,” I mutter.
Marco cracks a grin. “Just make sure she’s worth all this fucking drama.”
“And you know I would never put this family in danger if I wasn’t sure. Out of anyone, you both know that.” I don’t care what people say, I've always put my family first, and I still will.
“And if Grandfather, and Father disagree then?” Marco asks.
I take in a deep breath, rubbing the back of my neck. “I don’t know.”
Chapter 29
Aoife
The halls of Blackstone whisper louder at night. Sometimes I think they know my secrets, both of them and how either one could tear two families apart.
I move slowly, fingertips brushing the cold stone, tracing cracks like they might confess something back and tell me I’m not alone. My steps stay quiet, not from fear of being caught but because of the weight pressing behind my ribs, the same weight that’s lived there since the cliff. Since I jumped.
I jumped…because no one listened, because my voice was gone, because I was done being a pawn.
Matteo didn’t just catch me. He dove after me, held on like my soul wasn’t something to discard. Like I mattered.
He saved me.
Matteo always will. Not my family.
But even that doesn’t fill the hollow in my chest. The voices stay loud. The fear, the shame, the guilt, none of it fades. I keep hoping love, whatever this is, will drown the darkness still clawing inside me.
I still feel like a stranger in my own skin.
The night sky stretches above me as I walk toward Conor’s room, breath steady, mask already slipping into place. What I want to say is,I hate you. I hate this family for turning me into a pawn, for selling me like I’m nothing. But it stays buried. So, I smile instead and keep walking.
While Matteo was in the Trial, I didn’t speak to anyone. I stayed in bed, curled into myself, pretending the storm outside hadn’t already moved in.
part of me doesn’t regret jumping. How twisted is that? The only reason I haven’t gone back to that roof is because of him and the way he saidtrust me.
The brothers filled the silence with noise. Laughter, smoke curling through the air. Eyes always scanning, like guards on duty. They were worried. Rosa drifted in and out, trading gossip to fill the quiet. Something about a footballer’s son sleeping with half the building. Marco told her to stay away. She said she didn’t need to; everyone already knew she was untouchable because of them. She left. I was raised to hate his family. To believe the Messina name was built on blood and betrayal. But the only blood I’ve seen lately stains my own family’s hands. And here I am falling for the enemy. Sleeping in his bed.
What kind of daughter does that make me?
What kind of traitor will I be when I tell them I won’t marry Rory? That I won’t give them an heir to sell for power? That the lamb they tried to slaughter found a wolf instead?
I stop by the window. The lighthouse flashes across the cliffs, each pulse matching the dull ache in my chest.
There’s no turning back now.
Moving forward feels like dragging myself through barbed wire.
Maybe Matteo will fix this. Maybe he won’t. Love was never meant to be soft, especially here, especially between enemies.
I stop outside Conor’s door, staring at the gold plate with his name engraved across it. I roll my shoulders, crack my neck, and pull the mask on, the one that lets me lie with my eyes and make it look like love.
