Page 60 of Reign

My room looks like someone tried to pack a life and gave up halfway through. Boxes stacked near the dresser. Garment bags draped over the chair. Shoes lined up in uneven rows like tiny, judgmental soldiers. Half my closet is empty. The other half looks like it’s making a final stand.

California is ending.

Not forever, maybe. Not officially. But enough.

I’m finishing the rest of my degree back home. Back near my brothers, my family, the chaos we all pretend is normal because admitting otherwise would require therapy none of us are emotionally qualified to survive.

No one asked me to come back.

That might be the worst part.

There was no dramatic summons. No emergency. No brother ordering me home in that special Amato tone that makes obedience feel like survival.

Just me, standing in the middle of my half-packed room, realizing I no longer knew what I was proving by staying away.

I shove a sweater into my suitcase with more force than necessary.

My phone sits facedown on the bed.

Silent, innocent yet terrifying.

I refuse to look at it.

I last three minutes.

Chapter 12

Luciano

Rain streaks down the glass wall of my home office in long, silver lines.

Florida weather has always been theatrical, but tonight the storm seems determined to make itself useful. Wind pushes against the windows. Palm fronds bend in the dark beyond the terrace. Lightning flashes somewhere over the water, turning the room white for half a second before the night settles back into black.

I check the email from my pilot again.

Still on schedule.

Good.

Delays are for people with less control over their schedules.

Adriana and Obsidian already require more of mine than I wanted to give.

My sister is pregnant.

Angelo can glare himself blind. Marriage did not erase her surname, and it does not give him authority over how much of her family she keeps.

That child is my blood.

He will have to adjust to my presence.

I close my flight plan and move to the next tab.

Calendar. Meetings. Security reports. Shipping schedules.

A construction update for the second-floor renovation at Lucero Tower.

A message from Rafael about a delayed customs issue that’s only delayed because someone has decided to become difficult.