Page 3 of Shadows of Steel

I don’t even know his name.

Once, that fact gnawed at me. As a child, I sought answers, asked questions my mother refused to entertain. But silence became her weapon, wielded with surgical precision until my curiosity bled out.

Now, all that remains is indifference.

Desire, whether for something or someone, is nothing more than an open invitation to be shattered.

I have no wish to meet him. No need to know him.

Those hopes withered long ago, suffocated beneath the weight of truth.

Fathers do not abandon their daughters.

Not if they care.

Not if they are human.

Palermo is loud today. Market vendors shout over one another, hawking blood oranges and fresh fish. Tourists linger in front of the ancient cathedral, cameras snapping as its towering spires carve harsh silhouettes against the afternoon sky. There’s something poetic about the way this place clings to its ghosts.

It suits me.

This city, this world, this carefully constructed half-truth I’ve built around myself.

I weave through the crowd, my mind threatening to slip where I don’t want it to go.

Back to that night.

The sound of the door rattling.

His hands on my skin.

The glass sinking into flesh.

I stop walking. My breath snags, sharp and unsteady, as the memory claws its way to the surface, merciless. His face. His voice. The weight of him.

He’s not here now.

But he never truly leaves.

My nails press into my palms, sharp enough to sting, grounding me in the present. My vision wavers for a fraction of a second before I force it back into focus, swallowing against the tightness in my throat.

The air thickens, pressing down on my lungs like a phantom weight. I push through it, one breath at a time.

I won’t allow myself be vulnerable again.

The phone calls started almost immediately after I left.

My grandfather. My cousins.

At first, I’d sit and watch the screen light up, their names burning into my retinas like silent accusations. I knew that if they truly wanted to find me, they could. Their reach is vast. Their resources are boundless. There is no corner of this world they couldn’t infiltrate.

But I never really tried to disappear.

My trail is barely obscured, I’ve used my cards, I kept the same phone for weeks before I finally threw the damn thing away.

It was too much.

Theywere too much.