Chapter 81

Alessandro

It felt like some punishment, but sleep began to elude me much again lately. My body was wearied out from the weight of decisions I hadn’t made yet, and even more from the ones I had. When I finally rose, I did so with the kind of heaviness that keeps one down for long.

The morning passed slowly. I kept waiting for a message, an alert, anything that might delay what I was about to do—but all I got was silence. And that silence was cruel. It didn’t offer escape. It only echoed back the decisions that waited for me. So I picked the dress. I considered going to meet her myself, to leave the dress with her while watching for her reaction, but I thought against it.

Dark circles lay under my eyes, and the weariness hung over my shoulders. I felt like a defeated man, and I couldn’t go before her like that.

The hallway outside her room felt too quiet, too still. I had passed by at least three times, pausing each time like a fool trying to convince h