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Of course he did.

My uncle extends his hand. “It’s time you came with us, Lorenzo. Where you belong.”

My chest twists.

I look at my mother. She shakes her head, desperate. “Please. Don’t go. We can run again. We’ll figure it out.”

Run again? Hide again? Pretend again?

No.

I look at Matteo. He watches me with real hope.

“There’s nothing left for me here,” I say quietly.

“Lorenzo, please—”

But I’m already moving.

Toward the car. Toward the truth. Toward an unknown future.

I don’t look back.

Because if I do, I might not be able to leave.

21

Lorenzo

The car ride stretches on.A strange silence sits between us. It hovers, filling the air. It’s heavy but not unwelcome.

I sit in the back seat, boxed in by the two people who just turned my entire life inside out.

My cousin, Matteo, grins. And my uncle is stone-faced.

I lean my head back against the seat, fingers drumming against my thigh.

She’s gone. Victoria.

Gone.

And maybe I should be crushed, but I’m not.

All I feel right now is numb.

Fuck that . . .

I feel angry.

The fucking bitch left me.

She didn’t give a fuck about me.

I gave her everything. And she shits on me.

Left like I was nothing because, as it turns out, to her, I was.

It was all a lie.