My Fiancé Betrayed The Wrong Mafia Heiress Chapter 12
The Bird Was Me
By the next evening, I stand outside Luca’s bedroom and knock twice.
The room is silent for a moment.
When the door opens, he looks as if he has just stepped out of the shower. A black robe hangs loosely from his shoulders, and his wet hair falls across his forehead. His face is still pale.
He looks surprised to see me.
“Serafina?”
“We’re not training tonight.”
I walk past him and enter the room.
Luca does not ask why. He simply closes the door and follows me.
He is always like this.
He wants to come closer, but he always stops one step away and waits for my permission.
I turn to face him and look at his chest.
The robe covers most of the tattoo, leaving only a few black thorns visible. Below them is the wound he received when he took the knife for me.
“Did the doctor say you could shower?”
“No.”
“Then why did you?”
“You don’t like the smell of blood.”
He says it as if the answer should be obvious.
I look up at him.
“How did you know I would come?”
Luca pauses.
“I didn’t.”
A faint, bitter smile touches his mouth.
“I just hoped that if you did, I wouldn’t look too terrible.”
He knows exactly how to use my sympathy.
He never asks for anything. He never complains.
He only lets me see the scars he carries because of me, then quietly tells me they do not hurt and that he has never blamed me.
He waits for me to take the last step.
I know what he is doing, but I do not expose him.
Because he has never wanted the Moretti family’s power.
He has never wanted to become the heir’s husband.
He only wants to know whether I am safe.
And whether I could ever love him.
I touch the front of his robe.
Luca’s entire body goes still.
“Let me see the wound.”
He catches my wrist, but there is no strength in the gesture.
“It has already been treated.”
“Let go.”
His fingers release me at once.
I untie the robe.
The fabric slips from his shoulders, revealing the tattoo woven around his scars.
Thorns wind around a broken cage. A bird flies through the opening and toward his heart.
Now I understand why he would not explain it at the wedding.
The bird is me.
He turned the punishment he suffered because of my escape into the moment I became free.
“When you found me, I was already with Ethan?”
My fingers move slowly along the edge of the thorns.
His breathing deepens.
“Yes.”
“How did that feel?”
Luca looks at me for a long time without answering.
I raise my eyes.
“Tell me.”
“I wanted to kill him.”
His voice is calm.
Too calm.
“The first time I saw you beside him, I thought that if Ethan disappeared, maybe you would finally see me again.”
“Then why didn’t you do it?”
“Because you smiled at him.”
His gaze stays on my face.
“You loved him.”
His hand settles lightly against my waist, barely touching me.
“I failed to protect you once. If you had finally built the life you wanted, I couldn’t destroy it because I was jealous.”
“So you just watched?”
“Yes.”
“You were going to watch me marry someone else?”
His throat moves.
“Yes.”
“You watched them lie to me?”
His fingers finally tighten around my waist.
“That was my fault.”
I say nothing.
Luca lowers his head and rests his forehead against my shoulder.
He has spent years waiting for me to see him.
Now that I finally do, he still does not ask me to stay.