Chapter 99

Isabella

After a while, I stirred. The light coming through the curtains was thin and grey, the kind that made everything feel quieter than it should. Alessandro had been awake long before me; I could tell from the way he sat in the armchair by the window, perfectly still, an unlit cigarette turning slowly between his fingers. It seemed his mind was weighed heavily with something.

It was in the way he was absent-minded, twirling the cigarette, tapping his feet softly on the floor and humming softly. Almost as though he was distancing himself from the thoughts in his head.

I didn’t know if that was it or more, but there was something heavy sitting in my chest, something that had been building for days, maybe weeks. The weight of the secrets and lies I had been holding in, all alone for so long, felt like stones weighing me down, and I was tired of drowning under their weight.

“I need to tell you something,” I said, my voice still thick with sleep but ed