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“They got him to the hospital within ten minutes.”

He looks away.

“I was furious. I wanted to destroy the man who killed my son. But then I saw the footage. I saw the truth. I spoke to Matteo. Told him everything. I needed his conscience to be clean—because he wasn’t the one who should feel guilty. We should. My son… was the traitor.”

His eyes shimmer. “Matteo begged me not to tell you. He didn’t want you to remember your brother that way. He chose to protect your memory of Antonio—even if it meant losing youforever. But I can’t stand by and watch him break. Losing his son, and now the woman he would give his life for…”

He places a hand gently on mine.

“Maria, you have to forgive him. It wasn’t his fault. Matteo’s shot was meant to save his son, while Antonio’s was meant to kill him. In the end, Matteo won the war. But he lost so much more. He lost his family twice.”

My breath catches and I have to use the wall to steady myself. I feel like the world tilts on its axis. I feel the air evaporate from my lungs.

“He… he didn’t kill my brother,” I utter the words. “He… he is innocent.”

My father places his hand on the small of my back and pulls me into him. I allow him to hold me while I crumble. All this time I have been moving between love and hate, trying to make sense of the violence that tore my family apart.

I pull away from him, tears streaking down my face. “I need to find him, Papá. I need to…”

My father grabs my hands and kisses the back of my knuckles affectionately. “He’s on the balcony on the second floor. I left him there before I came to see you.”

I don’t respond to him. I simply pull my hand from his grasp. My feet are already moving by the time he is done speaking. My pace is quick—frantic and desperate to get to him. My heart roars in my chest at this newfound revelation that has leveled my entire psyche.

Antonio.

My brother.

A traitor?

No. No, not him.

But then—yes. Maybe.

I didn’t know anymore.

And Matteo…

The man I’d hated.

The man I’d loved anyway.

The man I’d cursed for taking my brother away.

He didn’t do it.

He didn’t even know.

My brother—my sweet Antonio—had been the one to start all of this. For months, I mourned him as a victim, believing he’d been gunned down in cold blood. But the truth? He chose the side of the true devil in this story—the cold, unscrupulous murderer who’s left nothing but blood and ruin in his wake. The man who hunted Matteo, who terrorized this family without mercy.

My heart still aches for him. I still grieve the boy I grew up with, the brother I once believed incapable of betrayal. But now, I see him in a new light—not a monster, not a martyr. Just… human. Flawed. And heartbreakingly lost.

I don’t love him any less. But the truth has cracked something open in me. It changes everything.

“One day,” I whisper into the silence of the hallway, the marble echoing beneath my feet. “One day, I will forgive you.”

My heels echo against the marble floors of the mansion as I move through the halls in search of my husband. The pain and despair that have consumed me for weeks now begin to lift, dissolving into something quieter—something purer. All that remains is love and grief. Love for him. Grief for everything we’ve lost. Matteo.

I pick up my pace, searching the hallway. By the time I make it to the end, to the door that leads to the balcony, I am panting.