RosebudRealms7
HER REFUGE -
The moment thunder split the sky, she flinched.
Rain soaked her to the bone, but it couldn't wash away the betrayal etched across her face. Her fingers tightened painfully around her phone as she stared at the only man she'd ever trusted.
Elian Moretti.
The man the world feared.
The man she loved.
The man who had lied to her from the very beginning.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, ELIAN?"
Her scream tore through the storm.
He didn't move.
Behind him stood a line of black SUVs and armed men waiting for their boss's command.
Yet, for the first time in years, the most powerful man in Italy stood powerless before one woman.
"Why?" she whispered, her voice breaking. "Why couldn't you just be real?"
"...Stella."
"Don't." She laughed, but it sounded more like a sob. "Don't you dare call me that."
"I beg you, Mr. Moretti... just leave me alone. I don't need your refuge. I never asked for your protection... I never asked for you."
She looked at him with nothing but disgust.
"You're a liar."
"A traitor."
"An absolute bastard."
Silence.
Only rain.
Only thunder.
Only two hearts shattering at once.
"I hope you lose everything, Elian."
His jaw tightened.
"...Enough."
"I hate you."
No tears.
No screams.
Just emptiness.
"You disgust me."
For the first time, something inside Elian Moretti broke.
But he didn't defend himself.
He didn't reveal the truth.
He simply watched the love of his life walk away and whispered,
"And I will love you... until my last breath, mia Stella."
She never looked back.
She never saw the men rushing toward him.
She never heard the gunshot that echoed through the storm.
She never knew that walking away from Elian Moretti would become the biggest mistake of her life...