Know Why

The officer reached my car and knocked on the window, signalling for me to roll it down. My heart raced, my palms sweating as I took a deep breath and lowered the window. The officer didn’t crouch down to look me in the face, standing tall as he asked in a voice that was calm but firm,

"Where are you going, ma'am?"

I froze, my mind scrambling for an answer. "I'm just going to visit a friend... a little out of town."

"Where to exactly?" he asked, his tone still measured.

I felt the panic set in as my mind searched for a place. Westwood. The name popped into my head before I could think better of it.

"Westwood," I stammered, praying he wouldn’t ask anything else. It was far from the city, but it was the only thing I could think of.

"Yeah? Is there a problem? Did I do something wrong? Was I speeding?" I managed to ask, trying to keep my voice steady.

That’s when the officer crouched down to look at me through the window. My breath caught in my throat as he still kept his cap low, hiding his face.

A faint smile tugged at his lips as he said,

"Ariella Costa... it’s been a long time."

The sound of my old name sent a shock through me. I hadn’t used "Costa" in years. I’d changed my last name to Michael after everything that happened, and for someone to know my real name... it had to be someone from my past. Someone close. Someone from the famiglia.

He lifted his cap then, and my heart almost stopped. There, standing in front of me, was Luca.

I gasped. "Luca?" I breathed, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.

He grinned widely, throwing his hands up dramatically.

"The one and only," he said, winking at me as if nothing had changed.

Luca Morelli.

He had been Asher's best friend, maybe even the only friend close enough to Asher to call family. They had grown up together, always side by side. Asher was closer to Luca than he ever was with his own younger brother.

And now, after everything with Asher, after the threat, seeing Luca here was a bad sign. This wasn’t good. Not good at all.

Luca was always the charming one, the life of the party. He never got angry, not like Asher. He was the kind of guy who lived for the moment, who lived free. Always had a smile on his face...But I knew better. I knew Asher well enough to understand that his best friend had a dark side. No one in the family didn’t.

The unease settled deep inside me, but I forced myself to keep it off my face. Maybe, just maybe, Luca had gotten out of the family. But the chances of that were slim, especially with the uniform he was wearing.

"So, you're a cop now?" I asked, trying to sound casual. "You went to the police academy?"

Luca threw his head back and laughed, loud and carefree. The kind of laugh that almost made me forget what I was afraid of. He wiped his eyes, still chuckling, before turning back to me.

"Fuck no," he said, his voice light and teasing. "You think I wanna be dead? You know the family won’t let me become a man in uniform unless I was working undercover." He paused, glancing down at his police uniform with a smirk. "And does this look good on me? Because I don't think it does. I think I look much better in my suits and T-shirts. The ladies love it," he added with a wink like it was the most normal thing in the world.

He was handling this well. Too well. Meanwhile, I was sweating bullets, not knowing what to believe or how to react. So he wasn't the police? Then why was he dressed like one? Why had he stopped me?

I hesitated, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Then why are you wearing the police uniform? Why did you stop me?"

The playful tone evaporated from Luca’s face as his face turned serious. He crouched down to my level, his eyes locking with mine. His voice dropped, low and serious.

"Come on, Ari," he said, using the childhood nickname that only my friends and family ever called me. It sent a shiver through me. "You and I both know why I stopped you. You and I both know why I’m here."

I knew what Luca was saying. Of course, he was here for that... But there was a part of me, a big part of me, that just thought this was all a misunderstanding, and that things weren't as bad as I thought they were.

As I shook my head, trying to push down the rising panic, I asked,

“I don’t understand… I mean, what do you want?” the question sounded stupid, even to me.

He turned all playful again, flashing that familiar smile that used to make me feel like everything was alright, but now, it felt like the mask of a man I no longer recognized.

“Oh Ari,” he said with a chuckle, leaning against my car casually. “I used to think Asher was crazy when he would go on and on saying that you weren’t dead, that there was nobody found, but his father was relentless with the fact that you had died in that fire. And so everybody believed it, even your parents, but Asher always felt that something else had happened to you.”

His words hit me like a blow. Asher... Asher had never stopped searching for me. He'd never believed I was dead.

Luca's gaze sharpened, and he gave me this intense look that made me half-aware, made me self-conscious, and put me on the spot. I didn’t like it. It was like he was assessing me like he was dissecting me, as if he was trying to figure me out with his stare.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry as I asked,

“So, he sent you...?”

Luca shook his head, a slight smile tugging at his lips.

“Yeah, something like that,” he replied, his voice casual but with an edge.

I bit my bottom lip, trying to hold myself together His presence alone was suffocating.

Then, his expression shifted again, the playful demeanour falling away as he went cold And serious.

“Well,” he said, his voice now business-like, “Asher’s instructions were simple. I was supposed to just keep an eye on you. He told me that you would run, and he told me I was to give you time to yourself, to gather yourself and say goodbye to your world, because the minute you decided to run away, it would mean that you were ready to leave this world behind.”

My heart skipped a beat. Run. He knew. Asher knew. And now, Luca was here to make sure I didn’t get away. He was here to bring me back.

“And that’s when I should take you back home,” Luca finished, his words sounding like a death sentence.

I felt my stomach drop as the reality of the situation hit me. I had tried to run. I had tried to escape, but now it seemed that there was no way out. Not with Luca standing in front of me, wearing that uniform like it was just part of his charm. It wasn't a choice anymore.

“So come on,” Luca said, his voice turning almost sweet again, as though we were just having a friendly conversation.

“ I am working under the impression that you’ve got a little boy with you. Take him, let’s go to the car.”

The way he said it, so casually, like we were going on a little vacation, made my skin crawl. This wasn’t some casual trip around the country. He wasn’t offering to help. He was taking me to my execution.