Page 55 of His to Destroy

Chapter 14 – Almeria

There’s a silence between us now that isn’t cold—but it isn’t peace either.

It’s the kind of quiet that follows a confession too raw to ignore, too fresh to process.

Gaspare told me he loves me.

That he wants me. That this marriage, once a strategy, has become something sacred to him.

And I believe him.

His words – hook, line and sinker.

That’s the part that unsettles me most.

Because love shouldn’t be this complicated. It shouldn’t come wrapped in the shadow of old wounds and bloodied oaths. It shouldn’t make me feel like I’m being drawn toward both healing and ruin at the same time.

I’m not a naive nineteen year old anymore.

I know what it means to love someone like him.

The cost of what we share.

And yet, I’m not trying to escape it.

But the thought still crosses my mind.

Running.

It’s not something new to me.

It’s a well-worn habit. A second skin.

I’ve been running since before Luca was even born—ducking from shadows, slipping through cracks in the world where no one would think to look for a Spadafora girl.

Always moving. Always looking over my shoulder.

It’s how we survived.

It’s how I kept him safe when I had no one else to turn to. No one but myself.

And maybe—maybe part of me will always believe that running is the safer choice. That staying still, letting myself grow roots, is just inviting someone to come and rip them out again.

I shift where I sit, the ache of that thought pressing against my ribs.

If I left now—if I packed up our lives again and disappeared—maybe I could protect Luca from the inevitable fallout.

From Gaspare.

From the Colosimos.

From the war that will always cling to this name, no matter how pretty the mansion or how lavish the lies.

But then I think about him.

My sweet boy.

I think about the way he smiled the day he ran through the garden, his little wooden sword clutched tight in his hand.

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