I've spent my life cutting out rot. This is just another tumor, even if it's one I loved.
I sit still because moving too soon might make me careless.
For her. Always for her.
The truth is closer than morning. I can feel it in the air, the electric charge of a storm about to break.
I am ready.
I stand up, my joints popping. I walk to the bed and lean over, pressing a kiss to her temple. She stirs but doesn't wake.
“I’ll come back,” I whisper.
I turn and walk toward the door. It’s time to face the library.
As I step into the hallway, a distant sound shatters the silence. A muffled, rhythmic tapping.
From the library.
My blood goes cold. I palm the grip of my Beretta.
The rat is in the hole.
I don't wake her yet—not until I know what's behind that door. I move quiet, feet silent on the carpet. I reach the library doors, heavy oak carved with ancient battles. I press my ear to the wood.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of keys. The sound of a conversation.
I take a deep breath, my finger tightening on the trigger. I’m about to break my world.
I push one door open slowly, phone already recording.
The room is dark, save for the blue glow of the monitor. A figure slumps in the chair. They don't turn.
"I’ve been waiting for you, Alessio," the voice says.
It’s the voice that read me bedtime stories. It’s Turi.
I don't lower the gun. My hand is steady, a surgeon’s hand, even as my soul screams.
"Turn around," I growl.
He turns the chair slowly. He looks old. The light from the screen makes his skin look like parchment. His eyes are hollow.
“I hoped it would be Dominic. He would have just ended it. I was sending one last warning, praying he'd find me before you did. But you... you’ve always seen too much.”
"Why, Turi?"
He looks at the screen, at the blinking light of the encryption node.
“Because debt is a dangerous thing, Alessio,” he whispers. “And because I loved your mother enough to convince myself one sin could buy her safety.”
The floor feels like it’s falling away.
“You sold the routes,” I say. “You told yourself it was debt, but it was never only debt.”
“I owed money. I was desperate,” he counters, his voice cracking. “I told myself if the Bellantis took the routes, the debt would clear and the war would end. I thought she would be free. I never intended for them to die.”
