Chapter 4: After the Lights
Outside, the air was colder.
Anna sat in the back seat of a black car, wrapped in a jacket Matteo had placed over her shoulders.
Her hair was uneven, chopped in a way that made her flinch every time she saw her reflection in the window.
She kept staring at her hands.
Like they didn’t belong to her anymore.
Matteo didn’t start the car right away.
He just sat beside her.
Letting the silence settle into something softer.
“I’m sorry,” Anna finally whispered.
Matteo turned slightly.
“Why?”
She swallowed hard.
“For letting it happen. For—”
“Don’t,” he said gently, cutting her off.
A pause.
Then he added:
“You didn’t let anything happen. He did.”
Anna’s eyes filled again, but this time she didn’t try to stop it.
“I thought nobody would come,” she said.
Matteo looked forward through the windshield.
“I always come,” he said. “Just sometimes… later than I should.”
The car started moving.
Behind them, the ballroom lights faded into distance.
And with them, Ethan’s world collapsed quietly into consequences he could no longer charm his way out of.
Anna leaned slightly toward Matteo.
Not fully healed.
Not fully whole.
But no longer alone.
Outside, the city moved on like nothing had happened.
But inside that car, something had ended.
May you like
And something else had finally begun.
The silence no longer waited. It was over.
