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The letter was signed in my mother's handwriting.
My hands trembled as I set it back down on the table, the words of her letter echoing through my mind. I couldn't believe it. The letters, the pictures...they were all real. Lorenzo and my mother had been having an affair. And if her letter was to be believed, Lorenzo had had my father killed.
I felt sick. How could I have been so blind? I'd known that Lorenzo was capable of terrible things, but this...this was beyond anything I'd ever imagined. To think that he could have done something so vile, so depraved...it made me feel like my whole world was spinning out of control.
My legs buckled and I slid to the floor, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. My breath was coming in short, ragged gasps, spots dancing across my vision. But even as I tried to calm myself down, I knew there was nowhere I could go that would be far enough to escape the truth. My heart pounded. I shoved the letters into my shirt and ran down the stairs, two at a time, my feet barely touching the ground. I needed to leave. I needed to get away from this house, this place, these people.
I needed to get away from Lorenzo.
The hallway was deserted, but I didn't stop to look for anyone. I burst through the front door and out onto the lawn, running blindly towards the street. I didn't care where I was going. I just needed to get away.
I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, so I didn't see the figure in my path until it was too late. I ran right into him, my momentum nearly knocking us both to the ground. Arms banded around me, and I gasped for breath, my heart beating painfully against my ribcage.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Luca's deep, concerned voice brought me back to the present. I blinked, realizing that he had lowered me to the ground and was looking at me worriedly. "Breathe, Emilia. Come on, slow it down. Breathe with me."
He placed one large hand over mine and gently squeezed my fingers. His touch was warm and reassuring, and I found myself instinctively focusing on his breathing. In...out...in...out...slowly, my own breathing began to match his, and I could feel the panic recede.
I looked up at him, my eyes wide and frantic. "Luca," I choked. "I need to talk to you. Now."
"Are you all right?"
I shook my head. "No. We need to go somewhere safe. Somewhere no one can overhear us."
"What's going on?" Luca asked, his voice laced with concern.
I glanced around, expecting to find someone lurking behind every shrub. "Not here," I whispered. "Please, Luca. You have to trust me."
He nodded, taking my arm and leading me toward the pool house. Inside, he closed the door and locked it behind us. I sank down onto the sofa, my legs trembling beneath me. Luca sat down next to me, his hands clasped tightly together as he watched me with worried eyes.
"Emilia, you're scaring me. What's going on?"
"I...I found some letters," I stammered, my hands shaking as I pulled them out of my shirt. "In my father's old suitcase. Letters between Lorenzo and my mother. And...and a letter to me."
I handed him the bundle of letters, my heart racing as I waited for him to read them. His expression slowly darkened as he leafed through the pages, and by the time he was done, there was a deep furrow between his eyebrows.
"This is...this is..." he trailed off, at a loss for words. "Jesus Christ. I never knew. I never thought..."
"Neither did I," I murmured. "I'm so stupid, Luca. How could I have been so blind?"
"You weren't the only one," Luca replied, his voice tight with anger and frustration. He held his head in his hands, his dark, shaggy hair falling over his forehead. "It gets so much worse."
"What do you mean?" I asked, my heart pounding in my throat.
Luca looked up at me, his eyes filled with pain and regret. "I'm sorry, Emilia," he said quietly. "I never wanted you to get tangled up in this. But I can't keep lying to you, not anymore. Not when your life is at stake."
"My life?" I asked. "What are you talking about, Luca? What is going on?"
He let out a deep sigh and shook his head. "It's all my fault," he murmured. "I was so stupid. I should have seen it coming. I should have known better."
"Luca," I said, my voice cracking. "Please tell me what's going on."
He took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. "We have a mole in the McTiernan Clan."
"What?"
He shook his head. "Both sides do it. Only, ours is in deep. He's been feeding us information on their shipments and we've been cleaning up. So far only a few people have gotten killed, all made men, but this time, he's gone too far."
