Chasing What Once Was

"Left here." Valentina's voice pulled at my mind. "The stones remember, even if you don't."

"Talking to ghosts now, Valentina?" Adrian's voice sliced through my thoughts.

I whirled around. "What are you doing in this part of Venice?"

"I could ask you the same." He adjusted his silk tie. "These aren't your usual haunts."

"Everything's changed since the accident."

"Have they?" He stepped closer. "Or is it just you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The way you move, the way you speak..." His eyes narrowed. "Even the way you look at me."

"And how do I look at you, Adrian?"

"Like you've seen a ghost."

"Maybe I have." I moved into his space. "Do you ever think about how things used to be?"

"Every day." His breath hitched. "Val—"

I kissed him before he could finish, letting muscle memory guide me. His hands gripped my waist, desperate and familiar.

I pulled back. "Nothing."

"What?"

"I needed to know if any feeling remained." I stepped away. "It doesn't."

"Valentina, wait—"

"Let me go, Adrian. We both know you already did once."

The ancient bookshop's bell chimed as I entered.

"Signorina Valentina!" The old shopkeeper's eyes lit up. "I've kept it safe, just as you asked."

"The key?"

"Si, si." He reached under the counter. "Though your husband has been asking questions."

"Nicolas was here?"

"This morning. Very interested in your recent movements."

"Did you tell him anything?"

"Only what you instructed – nothing."

My phone buzzed. A message from Elena: "Playing tourist in the old quarter? How unlike you."

I texted back: "Sometimes we need to revisit the past."

"Careful," she replied. "The past has teeth."

Through the window, I spotted Nicolas at the café. His camera wasn't subtle.

"You can come up," I called his number. "The surveillance act is beneath you."

"Is it?" His voice was ice. "Like keeping secrets from your husband?"

"We all have secrets."

"Not from me. Not until now."

The workshop door creaked open minutes later.

"Strange," Nicolas's voice filled the space. "In all our years together, this never came up."

"There's a lot we never discussed."

"Really?" He advanced. "Like that scar on your hairline?"

My hand flew to my head. "I—"

"The one my wife never had?" His palm slammed against the wall beside my head. "Who are you?"

"Your wife."

"Liar." He kissed me brutally, possessively. Then pulled back, eyes dark. "My wife never kissed like that."

I grabbed Valentina's journals. "Nicolas—"

"Don't move."

"Or what?" I edged toward the hidden exit. "You'll hurt your wife?"

"You're not my wife."

"Then who am I?"

The door slammed behind me before he could answer, his curse echoing through the stairwell: "I intend to find out."

I clutched the journals to my chest, my heart pounding. Valentina's memories were a maze, and I was running out of exits.

My phone rang as I reached the street. Sofia's name flashed on screen.

"Mama?" Her voice held an edge I'd never heard. "Luna's speaking funny."

"What do you mean, funny?"

"Like the books in Father's study. The old ones."

A crash echoed through the phone. Then Luna's voice, but not Luna's words: "Geminae flammae, anima duplex."

"Twin flames, double soul," Sofia translated. "See, Mama? Like that."

"Where's Ms. Elena?"

"Watching us. She's making notes."

My blood froze. "Put her on."

"Fascinating development," Elena's voice dripped honey. "The girls are quite gifted."

"Touch them and—"

"Now, now. We're all family here. Though some more legitimately than others, wouldn't you say?"

The line went dead.

I dialed Nicolas immediately. "The twins—"

"Are speaking perfect Latin," he finished. "I'm already on my way."

"Elena's with them."

"I know." His voice hardened. "Stay where you are."

"Like hell."

"That wasn't a request."

"Neither was this." I hung up, already running.

The Constantine mansion loomed ahead. Guards nodded as I passed – still seeing Valentina, still fooled. The sound of children's voices led me to the library.

"Veritas in tenebris lucet," Luna was saying, her small hands tracing symbols in the air.

Sofia mirrored her movements. "Truth shines in darkness, Mama."

Elena sat nearby, phone recording everything. "Right on time."

"Stop this."

"Stop what?" She smiled. "Documentation is important. Especially with such... unique specimens."

"They're children, not lab rats."

"They're miracles." She stood. "Just like their mother's resurrection. Tell me, how did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Come back." She circled me. "Because you did come back, didn't you? Just not as yourself."

The twins spoke in unison: "Anima in corpore alieno."

"A soul in another's body," Elena translated. "Children speak such interesting truths."

"You're insane."

"Am I?" She played a video on her phone – me, touching the scar Valentina never had. "Nicolas isn't the only one who's been watching."

The library doors burst open. Nicolas filled the frame, fury emanating from every line of his body.

"Out," he ordered Elena.

"But we were just getting to the good part." She gestured to the twins. "Ask them about their mother's soul. They seem quite informed."

Nicolas's gun appeared. "Now."

She sauntered past him, pausing at the door. "This isn't over."

"Yes," he leveled the gun at her head. "It is."

The door clicked shut behind her.

"Papa!" The twins ran to Nicolas. "We remembered the old words!"

"I heard." He holstered his weapon, eyes never leaving mine. "Why don't you show Ms. Maria your new skill?"

Our most trusted maid appeared, leading the girls out.

Alone, the silence stretched like a garrote.

"Nicolas—"

"The truth." He advanced. "All of it."

"I can't."

"Can't?" His laugh was bitter. "Or won't?"

"Both." I backed away. "The price is too high."

"Higher than our children speaking dead languages? Higher than my wife wearing another woman's scar?"

"Your wife is dead."

The words hung between us.

"Finally," he breathed. "The truth."

"Not all of it."

"But enough." He closed the distance. "You're not Valentina."

"No."

His hand cupped my cheek, thumb tracing my lips. "Then who are you?"

I kissed him instead of answering, pouring every truth I couldn't speak into it. He responded with equal hunger, equal desperation.

"Please," he whispered against my mouth. "Tell me."

"I can't." I pressed Valentina's journal into his hands. "But she can."

The sound of Elena's voice carried through the door: "Adrian? You'll want to see this security footage."

I slipped away as Nicolas opened the journal, Valentina's final secrets spilling into his hands like blood.

Some truths had to be read to be believed.

And some lies had to be kept to stay alive.

I had 147 days left to figure out which was which.