Chapter 251
KATYA POV
The mont Roo turned and walked back into the house, sothing in my chest loosened and tightened at the sa ti.
The door closed behind him with a sound that felt heavier than it should have been. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just final. Like a sentence ending where you weren’t ready for the period.
I didn’t look back. I was afraid that if I did, I’d see him standing there again—tall, unmoving, watching us like he was deciding whether rcy was still worth the cost.
Or worse, that I’d see nothing at all and realize how easily he could disappear from my life after tearing it apart.
My fingers curled around the phone in my hand. It felt warm, solid. Real. I kept expecting it to vanish, the way everything else had lately—safety, certainty, the version of myself that didn’t flinch at raised voices or heavy footsteps.
The engine humd beneath us as the car started moving. Slowly. Each inch forward felt like a test, like the universe was waiting for him to change his mind.
He didn’t. The gates opened. The gravel crunched under the tires. And just like that, the house began to shrink in the distance of the woods.
I swallowed hard.
My body was still buzzing, nerves stretched thin and frayed, like I’d been holding my breath for hours and had only just rembered how to inhale.
My hands were shaking. I pressed them together in my lap, willing them to be still. Nonna’s hand found mine.
Her grip was firm despite the tremor I felt beneath it. Grounding. Anchoring. I leaned into it without thinking, my shoulder brushing hers, like my body knew before my mind did that she was the only solid thing left.
"He let us go," I whispered, more to myself than to her. Nonna didn’t answer right away. She stared straight ahead, jaw tight, eyes sharp and distant.
When she finally spoke, her voice was calm—but it carried weight.
"Yes, he did" she said. That shouldn’t have felt so strange. Roo letting anyone go. Roo choosing not to force, not to burn, not to destroy.
The thought twisted uncomfortably in my chest. I closed my eyes. Was this a test? To see how many hours I could survive without breaking?
Images flickered behind my lids—blood on Lila’s lips, dark and shocking against her pale skin.
The way she’d choked on her words. The way the room had spun, closing in on until all I could see was red and all I could feel was terror.
And him.
Roo standing there, untouched by the chaos, eyes cold and controlled like he was watching a storm he’d summoned on purpose. My stomach turned.
I didn’t care about punishnt anymore. I didn’t want revenge on Frank. The rage that had once burned hot and righteous felt exhausted now, hollowed out by fear. Whatever justice I’d imagined had been replaced by sothing smaller and more desperate.
I just needed safety.
I’d seen what Roo was capable of when he thought he was protecting —and that knowledge sat like a stone in my chest. Heavy. Permanent.
I opened my eyes and stared down at the phone again. His number was there. A lifeline.
Or a chain.
I couldn’t tell which yet.
Michael’s na sat beneath it, quiet and unassuming, and that hurt in a different way. Michael, with his steady presence and concerned questions.
Michael, who had worried without demanding, who had tried to help without turning into a battlefield.
The thought of him finding out where I was—what I’d been pulled into—made guilt coil in my stomach. He didn’t deserve the danger that followed like a shadow.
He didn’t deserve to be caught between n like Roo and turned into dead ss like Frank.
I wouldn’t call Roo.
And I wouldn’t call Michael either. Not because I didn’t care but because I did.
I was going far away. Sowhere quiet. Sowhere untouched by blood and power and n who decided things for .
It would be better to disappear than to let anyone else get hurt for standing too close.
The road stretched ahead of us, unfamiliar and open.
Freedom was supposed to feel lighter than this. Instead, it felt fragile—like glass balanced on the edge of a table, one wrong breath away from shattering.
Behind us, the house disappeared completely. The drive stretched on in a strange, suspended quiet.
Trees closed in around the road, tall and dense, their shadows folding over the car like a tunnel that refused to end.
The estate had always felt endless when I was trapped inside it. Leaving it felt the sa—like it didn’t want to let us go without a final test of patience.
Minutes blurred into one another. Then half an hour. Then more. The farther we drove, the more the silence settled into my bones. Not awkward. Not tense. Just heavy with everything we weren’t saying.
The only sounds were the steady hum of the engine and the soft rush of tires against gravel and dirt, the forest slowly thinning as civilization crept back in.
I checked the ti on my phone without really aning to. Almost an hour had passed. An hour since Roo had turned his back. An hour since my life had split cleanly in two.
When the road finally opened up, I didn’t notice it right away. No sudden city lights or towering buildings. Just a wide stretch of pavent, darker and smoother, cutting through an open clearing.
The car slowed. My brows knit together as I leaned forward slightly, peering through the windshield.
Lights appeared ahead, stretching into the distance like a glowing path. "What...?" I murmured before I could stop myself.
Nonna shifted beside . Her grip on my hand tightened—not in fear, but in quiet reassurance. The car turned once more, and then I saw it.
My breath caught.
The plane sat there like sothing unreal, massive and sleek under the night sky. White body gleaming beneath the lights, wings stretching farther than I thought possible, cutting through with a kind of silent authority.
I stared.
I’d seen planes before—tiny things in the sky, distant and unreal. This was different. This was close. Solid. Enormous. "That’s... that’s for us?" I asked, my voice barely louder than a whisper.
The car ca to a smooth stop. A door opened sowhere ahead. People who didn’t look at like I was fragile or broken—just like I belonged there.
Nonna smiled faintly, the kind of smile that carried secrets but no fear. "Yes, mia cara."
My heart started pounding again, but this ti it wasn’t terror driving it. It was awe.
I stepped out of the car, my feet sinking slightly into the cool ground, and tilted my head back to take it all in.
The plane felt impossibly big up close, its door already open, stairs waiting like an invitation.
This was it. No gates. No guards. No turning back.
And I didn’t know whether to feel relieved... or terrified of what I’d just left behind.
††
New life eh
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