Chapter 3

Alessia POV:

The day after the funeral, Caden finally called. I was sitting on the porch steps of my mother's house, the air heavy with the sickly-sweet decay of funeral flowers.

I let it ring three times before answering.

"Ally." His voice was low, threaded with a practiced, hollow sorrow. "I just got back. I'm so sorry."

I said nothing.

"Why aren't you at the apartment?" he asked, a hint of his usual impatience creeping in.

"I'm at my mother's house."

He sighed, a sound of pure inconvenience. "I should have been there. I know." He paused. "Look, Isabella is a wreck. She's blaming herself for what happened. She's with me now, she's completely falling apart."

My voice, when I spoke, was a flat line, stripped of all emotion. "Put her on the phone."

A moment of silence, then Isabella's voice, thick with theatrical, hiccupping sobs. "Ally, I am so, so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. Caesar has never... maybe your mother had a dizzy spell? Maybe she fell on him?"

And just like that, the blame shifted. From her aggressive dog to my sick mother.

"Caden already has his lawyers handling things," she added, her voice gaining a sliver of strength. "To protect me. To make sure everything is taken care of."

Caden came back on the line. "It was a tragic accident, Ally. You're being emotional."

"The doctor said the dog wasn't vaccinated," I said, each word a chip of ice.

"That's not true," he snapped, instantly defensive. "Isabella is meticulous about her dog. You must have misheard. You were in an emotional state."

His tone morphed, the anger dissolving into the kind of patronizing calm you'd use on a hysterical child. "Listen to me. I know this is hard. But you don't have to worry about a thing. I will handle everything."

I will handle you. That's what he meant.

I hung up.

Then I blocked his number. Blocked Isabella's.

I sat on the porch, the wood cold beneath me, and finally accepted the truth. The life I had fought so hard to be worthy of, the man I'd mistaken for my salvation-they were phantoms. Illusions I had conjured to keep myself safe.

There was nothing left to hold on to. Only an empty house and the long road ahead.