I followed the nurse to a private waiting room down the hall. Giulio intercepted us outside Cesare's door.
"Mrs. Monti, I don't think—"
"It's fine, Giulio. Stay with Cesare. I can handle my sister."
"I'll be right outside this door."
"Thank you."
The waiting room was small, generic. Beige walls, uncomfortable chairs, magazines nobody read.
And there she was.
Bianca. My identical twin. Looking healthier than the last time I'd seen her a few days ago—her bruises had faded, stitches removed.
We stared at each other. Mirror images. Strangers.
"Hi," Bianca said. Voice small and uncertain.
I didn't respond. Just waited.
"I heard about the rescue. About Cesare getting shot. I wanted to... I needed to see you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my sister."
The statement was so absurd I almost laughed. "Your sister? The one you drugged and abandoned? That sister?"
Bianca flinched. "I know. I know what I did was—"
"Unforgivable?"
"I was going to say unforgivable, yes."
Silence. Heavy with six weeks of betrayal, anger, hurt.
"Why are you really here, Bianca?"
She sat, looking exhausted in a way that mirrored my own bone-deep weariness. "Because Piero told me what happened. How Cesare took a bullet for him. How you saved them both. And I realized... I realized I don't know who you are anymore."
"I'm the same person I've always been."
"No. You're not. The Paola I knew was quiet. Invisible. She taught art classes and went home alone. This Paola married a Don. Survived in his world. Helped rescue people from a mafia war."
Bianca looked up, and I saw genuine confusion in eyes, identical to mine. "Who are you now?"
I sat across from her, maintaining distance. "I'm someone who didn't have a choice. You gave me to Cesare like I was nothing. And I had to survive."
"I'm sorry."
"Are you? Because you had weeks to be sorry. weeks to come back. To explain. To fix this. Instead, you went to Viktor. Gave him information to destroy us."
"I was scared! After I ran, I had nowhere to go. Viktor found me, offered protection—"
"In exchange for betraying your family."
"You're not my family anymore," Bianca said bitterly. "You're a Monti now. You chose them over me."
