Chapter 130

The Prey

Rara's sobs had reverberated for hours before fading, leaving a silence so loud it swallowed everything.

The Romanovskis were gone now, off to Moscow and then Italy, leaving their son and his chaos behind. I wondered if they’d ever truly come back—or if Judas would let them.

I stood in the middle of the hollow living room, staring at nothing and hearing everything: the faint creak of wood, the distant shuffle of the guards, and the relentless pounding of my own heartbeat. It felt wrong. Judas wasn’t here, but his scent refused to fade.

I told myself to let it go.

To shove the hollowness of his pale eyes into some dark corner of my mind and lock the door. He wasn’t my responsibility. I had my own scars to nurse, my own pieces to gather. And yet, every time I blinked, his face was there. The bitterness in his smile, the brokenness in his voice.

You can’t save him, I whispered to myself. He doesn’t want to be saved.