Page 27 of Alessia
I finally break the silence. “You think I have a choice?”
Harper’s brows pull together. “What?”
I exhale, rubbing my hand down my face. “This life. The reason you don’t trust me. You think I can just walk away?”
Her expression hardens, but there’s something beneath it, something hesitant. “Everyone has a choice, Alessia.”
I let out a humorless laugh.
“Not in my family. Not in this world.” I step closer, searching her eyes, hoping she’ll see it, the truth I’ve never said out loud before.
“You think it’s as easy as packing a bag and leaving? That’s not how it works. You’re either in, or you’redead. There is no middle ground.”
She swallows, and for the first time since we met, I think she finally sees the weight I carry.
“Then why bring me into it?” she asks, quieter now.
“Because you already are, Harper,” I admit, my voice quieter now. “You’re in this… because you’re in my life.”
Her lips part, but no words come. Because she knows it’s true. Because I can’t let her go, and maybe, just maybe, she doesn’t want me to.
I take a slow step back, watching as she processes, waiting for her to run. But this time she doesn’t.
Harper stares at me, her breath hitching for just a second. I see the way her fingers twitch at her sides, the way her mind races behind those sharp brown eyes. She’s always been good at keeping her walls up, but I know I just cracked something open.
She exhales slowly. “So, that’s it? I don’t get a choice either?”
I shake my head. “No, you do. But it won’t change the fact that being around me, being with me, means stepping into something dangerous. Something you might not be able to walk away from.”
She crosses her arms, studying me. “And yet, you’re giving me the chance to leave?”
“If you want to.” The words taste bitter on my tongue.
Harper doesn’t look away. “And if I stay?”
My chesttightens. I hadn’t let myself consider that. Because if she stays, there’s no going back. Not for either of us.
“If you stay,” I murmur, stepping closer, “then you need to understand what this life means. What being with me means.”
Harper tilts her head slightly. “Then tell me, Alessia. Tell me what it means.”
A beat of silence passes between us. And then, finally, I do.
I tell her about the blood, the power, the loyalty that isn’t earned but demanded. I tell her about the weight of a name like mine, about the rules written in violence and silence. I tell her about the choices that aren’t really choices at all.
And Harper listens, really listens, without flinching, without pulling away.
When I’m finished, the air between us is heavy, the truth hanging there, raw and unfiltered.
She could walk away now. She will walk away now; I just know it.
But instead, she just exhales, eyes locked on mine, and says, “Okay.”
I search Harper’s face, trying to read between the lines of that ‘okay’. It isn’t surrender, but it isn’t rejection either.
She tucks her arms across her chest, glancing away for a brief moment before meeting my gaze again.
“I need time to think.”
