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50: A House Without Her

Author: Pann Ludovica
last update Last Updated: 2025-02-09 07:27:05

POV: Ryuu

I had been restless since leaving Vincenzo’s estate. The drive back felt like a slow suffocation, each mile stretching the unbearable silence pressing against my skull. The second we pulled into the garage, I tossed the keys aside and sank into the passenger seat, my knuckles aching from how tightly I had gripped the wheel. I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. Not yet.

Leaving Beatrice there had been the right decision. That’s what I told myself, over and over. But the gnawing unease in my gut told a different story.

I had woken early that morning, ready to force the conversation we kept avoiding. I wouldn’t allow this distance to stretch any further. I wouldn’t let her slip through my fingers. But instead of finding her in bed, still curled in sleep, I found empty sheets.

She was gone.

The panic had been instant, raw. A vice around my ribs. Every worst-case scenario slammed into me at once. The house wasn’t impenetrable—someone had already gotten to her once. If they had c
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