Chasing What Once Was

The fog came in thick off the canals and wrapped itself around my ankles like ghostly fingers. I stumbled against ancient stone, and Valentina's memories struck me like a blow.

"Mama?" Sofia's small hand tightened in mine. "Your eyes look funny."

"They're glowing," Luna whispered, pressing closer.

The memory consumed me-Valentina racing these same streets, clutching papers that could destroy everything. My heart pounded with an echo of her desperation.

"This way." The words came from somewhere deeper than thought. "Stay close."

We turned down a narrow alley just as voices carried across the water. My blood went cold at the familiar cadence.

"I could have sworn I saw her." Adrian Constantine's voice sliced through the fog. "With the children."

I pressed the twins into a shadowed doorway, my body shielding them. Footsteps approached, measured and deliberate.

"Valentina?" Adrian's tone was low, deadly familiar. "Out for an evening stroll?"

I made myself turn, to face my killer wearing Valentina's face. "Adrian."

His eyes pegged me with a predator's intensity. "The children look just like you did at that age."

Luna's fist knotted in my dress. The café chairs beside us rattled suddenly, drawing the notice of Adrian's security detail.

"Sir," one guard called. "We should move."

Adrian's eyes lingered. "Another time then, dear sister."

The instant the sound of his feet disappeared, I slumped against the cold stone wall. The twins spoke as one: "The bookshop, Mama. That's where it is."

Their eyes shone with an opalescent light that should have sent shivers down my spine. Instead, it felt right—like pieces falling into place.

The shop bell above the door jingled as we entered. Memories guided my feet to a particular shelf, my fingers finding a worn copy of Dante's Inferno.

"Signora Salvatore!" The shopkeeper's voice was thick with recognition I couldn't afford to question. "It's been years!"

I turned with Valentina's smile. "Too many, Antonio."

The key taped to the book's back burned against my palm. Numbers in Valentina's hand: 47-23-19.

A security camera in the corner blinked red.

---

Nicolas Salvatore watched the footage, his jaw clamped tight. "Again."

"Same pattern as three years ago," his security chief verified. "The same route."

"Find her." Nicolas rose from his seat, the violence of the action contained within the movement. "Now."

---

The twins escorted me to an nondescript building, their step in synchronized certainty. "Third floor," they chimed. "Behind the mirror."

The apartment door opened to the key in Valentina's hand. Inside, a hidden wall was covered with maps and photos-the operations of the Constantine family laid bare.

"Stay back," Sofia said, the sound of footsteps echoing up the stairs. Luna raised her small hands, and the lights in the building flickered wildly.

The door burst open. Nicolas filled the frame, his eyes dark with something that was almost rage and yet almost desire.

"Explain." His voice was soft, deadly. "Why are you investigating my family again?"

"Nicolas—" My voice cracked, and he was across the room, hands clamping onto my arms.

"No more lies." His face was inches from mine. "Why these streets? Why now?"

The twins' power bucked, making the room vibrate. Nicolas tugged me closer, the touch at once gentle and unyielding as steel.

"I need to know who you are," he whispered against my hair. "Because you're not my wife. Not anymore."

My fingers found Valentina's journal behind the false wall. The entry on its open page made my blood run cold: *Adrian knows about the twins' abilities. He'll never stop hunting them. And Isabella—god help her, she has no idea what she married into.*

"Tell me the truth," Nicolas demanded, his lips brushing my temple.

The weight of the journal anchored me as I made my choice. The truth would cost me everything—Nicolas, the twins, this second chance at life.

But the evidence in my hands could destroy both Adrian and my father.

Nicolas's arms tightened as if he could hold back my secrets through sheer force of will. "Please."

I closed my eyes, feeling the twins' power pulse around us like a heartbeat.

Some truths were worth any price.

But not yet. Not today.

"I can't," I whispered against his chest. "But I will. Soon."

His hands framed my face, thumb tracing my lower lip. "Don't make me choose between protecting my family and protecting you."

"You won't have to." I pressed Valentina's journal deeper into its hiding place. "I promise."

The twins sealed the wall with their power, their eyes still aglow in the dark. Protecting their mother's secrets-both of them.

Nicolas's kiss tasted of danger and desperation. Of endings and beginnings.

Of time running out.