CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Forgive Me, Love15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaBdW7NhKUE
(Matteo’s POV)
He didn’t tell her where he was going.
He just left a note beside her pillow:
“I’ll be back before the sun sets. If I don’t come home—don’t wait. Raise her without me. But know I loved you both with everything I had left.”
The drive was long.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4E2yJP1LZT
Dusty roads.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9iAGEuqB3
Nothing but guilt in the air.
And the weight of one last name—
Luciana.
His first patient.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWcxagfZHd
His first mistake.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ574VDkJZcE
His first... sin.
She was still alive.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWgx47oZc4
In a quiet care home.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNLronZFxQq
Diagnosed with long-term trauma.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqwkdAD3QEN
No family.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvxNKrxk0y
No voice.
But her eyes still remembered him.
Even after everything he did.
He entered the room.
Luciana was sitting by the window, staring at nothing.
Her hands were pale.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqkwN0Cuw62
Wrinkled.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRe18LpHgdM
One of them flinched when she heard his footsteps.
But he knelt beside her.
Slow.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9eQxkin1mJ
Gentle.
“I came to say sorry.”
No answer.
“You trusted me. I used you. For comfort. For control. For ego.”
“And I broke you.”
Tears rolled down his cheeks.
“I didn’t know love back then. I only knew how to take.”
“But I’m about to be a father now. To a little girl.”
“And if someone ever treated her the way I treated you—”
He sobbed.
“—I would burn the whole world down.”
He took her hand.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkjtRdWQf6n
It shook in his palm.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0eEB44JKO
But she didn’t pull away.
“If there’s any mercy left in the universe… let it be this.”
“That you find peace.”
“And that I learn how to be better… through her.”
She didn’t speak.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrc1vXgjd4
But her fingers tightened.
Just once.
And Matteo broke.
He sat with her in silence for an hour.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdwwapRy8rg
Left flowers on her table.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ58Ho4k09Nd
And walked away lighter.
For the first time in years—15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡScI7ZIdkYs
He didn’t hate himself.
He could breathe.
When he came home, she was waiting outside the motel room.
Holding a small pink sock.
“She kicked hard today.”
He knelt and kissed her belly.
“I faced my past today.”
“And?”
“It didn’t kill me.”
That night, Matteo wrote in a notebook.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDlxCWrsAy
A letter for Arielle.
ns216.73.216.239da2“One day, you’ll ask me who I was before you. And I’ll tell you the truth. But I’ll end it with this—15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMW6bfdjUq
‘You made me a man worthy of being remembered.’”
