Page 253 of Untamed

“Matty, of course you weren’t just some to pass time. The time I shared with you were very special to me. But I was grieving and confused,” I say softly. “After losing my parents, everything around me was falling apart. And you were the only thing at that moment that felt steady. Like maybe I could feel normal again ifI let myself feel something for you… it might make the darkness I was in easier to ignore.”

Matteo exhales slowly, the sound more of a release than a response. Bitterness simmers at the edges of it, but it doesn’t take over.

I shift slightly, my arms still crossed, but the words slip out before I can stop them, quiet and unpolished, because it’s the only way they’ll come out.

“Ares came into my life at a time I didn’t even know I needed saving.” My voice dips, softening as the memories tighten in my chest. “He’s rough. Distant. Impossible, sometimes. But whenever I felt like I was slipping, whenever everything else cracked beneath my feet, he was there. Always. He caught me when no one else saw me falling.”

I glance down at the stone beneath our feet, my thumb drifting over the bracelet like I’m trying to tether myself to something solid. “I never thought I’d feel this way about someone like him. But even with all his shadows and silence… he’s the one who pulled me out when everything else went dark.”

I don’t say it to excuse anything. Or to hurt him. But I see the flicker in Matteo’s eyes, the way he absorbs every word like it’s both a wound and a truth he already knew, deep down.

“Guess I never stood a chance.”

My throat tightens, the words scraping on the way out. “Matteo… you’re a good guy. And you deserve someone who will love you completely and give you every bit of their heart.” His gaze meets mine again, and this time, it lingers. Something final settles in his hazel eyes. A quiet acceptance, maybe. Or the beginning of one, I’m hoping.

He doesn’t say anything right away. Just looks at me like he’s carving something in his mind that he knows he won’t be allowed to keep. The wind moves between us, cool against my skin, but it doesn’t cut through the heaviness.

Then he speaks, quiet but steady. No venom. Just a final truth he feels she needs to hear.

“I hope he’s worth it, Fosette.” Matteo says. “Because loving someone like him... it’ll cost you more than you think.” His eyes linger a moment longer, and there’s something in them, regret, maybe. Or just the last flicker of something that used to be hope.

Then he turns, steps back into the shadows of the house, and doesn’t look back.

And I stay there, rooted to the spot, staring into the dark stretch of olive groves below, carrying the weight of everything unsaid, and the quiet warning that now echoes louder than the silence he left behind.

Everyone keeps warning me like I don’t already know the risk. Like my heart hasn’t already chosen him. But the more they say it… the harder it is to silence the voice in my head that’s wondering... what if they’re right. What if we really are fighting a losing battle, one that will inevitably end with our destruction?

The mirror’s still fogged from the shower, softening the harsh lines of my expression into something unrecognisable. I twist the towel tighter around my chest, water dripping from theends of my hair to the tile below. My breathing stays quiet...controlled. Even now.

I hear the door open. Not the bathroom door, the one to the bedroom. Heavy boots against the floorboards. The familiar rustle of movement I used to crave the sound of.

Then his voice, rough, low, cautious.

“Bambina?”

I don’t move. Ares waits. I can feel him just beyond the door. I don’t need to see him to know he’s standing there, watching, trying to read the air through the silence.

“Jordyn?” I reach for the moisturiser and start smoothing it into my skin, slow and deliberate. “Ehi, che c’è che non va, tesoro?”Hey, what’s the matter, sweetheart. He asks, gentler now. “Jordyn?” He says again firmer this time. “You’re really not going to look at me?”

Still nothing.

I hear Ares exhale slowly. “Okay, clearly you’re pissed.”

I roll my eyes at the mirror.No shit.

“Bambina, will you say something.”

I tighten the towel again when he steps further into the bathroom. His voice shifts, gruffer now. A little harder. “Stop fuckin’ ignoring me, Jordyn.”

I set the bottle down with a sharpclackagainst the sink and finally look up. Not at him, at the mirror. At his reflection standing behind me in the doorway, eyes hard. The image of a man who thinks his silence is a justifiable currency for mine.

“Stop ignoringyou?” I intone, my eyes narrowing. “Is this coming from the man who has been ignoring my calls and text messages?” I hiss, not bothering to mask my annoyance. “You’ve been gone for three days,” I inform him, my voice clipped. “No text. No call.Nothing.”

“I had business?—”

“Yeah,” I cut in flatly, “and I had a pulse. Guess we both stayed busy.” Ares stares at me, unmoving. I see the flicker in his eyes. Not quite guilt. Just… tension that’s contained and controlled.

“You could’ve checked in,” I add, still not looking at him directly. “But I guess I forgot, emotional well-being isn’t part of the job description.” He steps forward, shrinking the space between us.

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