Rhythmic. Relentless.
Desperate.
My chest tightened.
Inside the other ambulance, two female doctors worked urgently over Elena, and then the doors slammed shut—first one, then the other.
Engines roared.
And just like that—
They were gone.
Two streaks of red and blue cutting through the darkness as the ambulances peeled away down the drive, sirens screaming into the night.
Silence rushed in behind them.
I stood frozen on the gravel, the taillights of the ambulances already swallowed by the night.
Gone.
Just like that.
My arms were still curved in the shape of holding them—like if I stayed like this long enough, something would rewind.
Reverse.
Undo what I’d done.
It didn’t.
The cold seeped through my coat, through my shirt, into my bones. But that wasn’t what chilled me.
It was the silence.
Heavy.
Final. Punishing.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to move.
Turned.
Ciro stood a few paces away, exactly where he always positioned himself—hands clasped behind his back, posture straight, expression controlled.
Watching.
Measuring everything.
But something in the way he looked at me now felt... different—not concern, not fear, but something closer to calculation.
“Release Renzo immediately,” I said, my voice rough, stripped of everything.
“I want both of you at the hospital—now.”
Ciro inclined his head without hesitation.
“Of course, boss.”
