Chapter 18 - The Letter from FlorenceThree weeks after the birthday party, a plain brown envelope arrived in the daily courier pouch from Italy.
It bore no return address, only a postmark from Florence and a messy, trembling handwriting that I hadn't seen in five years.
I sat at the mahogany desk in the master study, the envelope resting between my hands like a live grenade.
Elias walked in, his keen eyes instantly noticing the tension in my posture. He closed the heavy oak door behind him, walked over, and pulled the envelope from my fingers with practiced ease.
“What is this?” he asked, his voice dropping into that dark, defensive register.
“Read it,” I whispered.
Elias slid his finger under the flap, pulling out a single sheet of cheap institutional paper. He read it in silence, his jaw tightening until the muscle ticked visibly in his cheek.
Ava,
If you are reading this, the doctors here have finally told me the truth about my lungs. ADX Florence is a cold place to die. I don’t ask for your forgiveness—I know what I did under that bridge was monstrous, driven by a greed and a madness that I thought made me a king.
I heard about the girls. Heard they’re growing up strong and beautiful, untouched by the world I tried to sell them into.
You won't hear from me again. When this letter reaches you, I’ll be gone.
—Victor.
The paper slipped from Elias’s fingers, drifting down onto the Persian rug like a fallen leaf.
Neither of us spoke for a long time. The silence in the study was absolute, broken only by the ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the corner.
Victor was dead. The man who had sentenced us to freeze in the dark had died in a concrete cell thousands of miles away, forgotten by the world he tried to conquer.
Elias stepped around the desk, pulled me up from my chair, and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight against his chest.
“He’s gone, Ava,” Elias whispered into my hair. “The past is finally, truly dead.”
May you like
I closed my eyes, burying my face in the familiar scent of his sweater, feeling the last remaining knot of old terror finally dissolve inside my soul.
“I know,” I whispered back.
