Loving You Was the Lie

The Man in

f coming back when you finally

g barefoot in her apartment with a glass of wine in one hand

d arrived in an u

eturn address.

ide a café in Florence, wearing the grey c

e had written seven

o what happen

read i

n a

ly sound that frightened her

his wedding ring, the little silver chain he wore beneath his shirts. She remembered the fune

ard and throwing up until there

t come bac

e alive in a photogr

had made a te

someone

t down h

ssa

The last time she had seen him, he had stood outside a courthouse in a black suit, his expression as unre

d at her for

stop asking questions you aren

d slap

't stop

around them had gone silent, but the way he had looked at her afterward-as

ted him fo

erself more for

ated on the ki

wn nu

he Moretti ma

red at th

d one a

f Alessandro

at the phot

e dead father, a suspicious message, and a deep pers

lled a

ts of the city, all pale stone, towering windows, and expe

d specta

l shook hands with men whose smiles never reached their eyes. And once three years a

pened before she cou

een her first reas

hed the black dress she had borrowed from h

an recogn

ace c

More

vening,

though expecting someone t

e expe

a st

wh

esit

Aless

cou

most l

sages, and making it perfectly clear that she was a problem he

ad a wicked se

m here to se

genuinely u

't receiving vi

to learn to mak

t him before h

ed of polished wood, expe

hated

e would leave them in a vase beside her mother's bed, kiss her foreh

d thrown every rose in th

ever expl

ed suits stood in small groups, speaking quietly over glasses of champagne.

pa

ura

al into a networking opportunit

ssed the entrance ha

oosened and his sleeves buttoned neatly at the wrists. His dark hair was

ing to an old

e look

another few seconds before real

lessandro's exp

nyone else might

ne brief, unguarded moment, he looked less like the heir to a

e mask

o the older man and

betrayed her

remembered him before her mind c

ding her through a crowded room. His laugh when she beat him at cards. The w

d the night h

the morning h

d the last messag

ll me if any o

never a

f her, smelling faintly

n't be here

led witho

ely way to gr

abe

ssan

ace, searching for someth

eone inv

invitation to

s house

sider me

as almost a laugh, except nothing

ven't c

rned how to hold

y forgotten how to st

ut to say the sam

ent, neit

stra chan

ped a glass, and the sharp crack ag

ndro n

oftened before h

ou all

o painfully familiar, that Bell

front of his expensive shirt and demand that he explain why her fa

, "I need to spea

ression

N

use

heard

something ab

went comple

e it

ise. Not

gnit

room tilt ben

d," she w

your

ow some

el

call me

her, and she saw something in his eyes s

e

or hi

r

eak, a woman's voi

Your father is l

a tu

em suddenly dull. She wore a fitted black dress, a diamond bracelet, and a

tina

her name. E

ettis for decades. The woman who had grown up beside Alessandro and, according to th

s settled

second, her sm

he rec

she said. "I've hear

y of it was

st of it was

a fr

ap of Bella's dress, a gesture so intim

s family has a way of making

ed briefly tow

nding them wha

spond, Val pressed so

l bras

looked

again, Val was al

caught Be

d she gi

thi

lie t

ulled

to ask me for hone

hifted acro

he looked al

ated th

out Alessandro Moretti was

, stubborn part of her

photograph roo

was what she to

, revealing a staircase that descended into darkness.

th

er phone's flashl

lined with filing cabinets. Dust covered the floor

y a card

written acr

ands bega

clippings, and handwritten letter

Lorenzo Moretti, Alessandro's father. They were young

, someone h

the b

swal

a little girl with dark cur

ized herself

five y

se face had been scratched

gers we

photograph clos

back wa

e written in her father's

ppened that summer, neit

rd creaked

spun a

stood in

le, but his eyes had gone t

moment, he

the room and closed

wn," he sa

couldn

is th

ked at the pho

in his f

nough for anyone who di

lla no

own every versi

elieved that m

whispered.

wly, as though approach

this room, whatever anyone tells you

ha

es met

didn't die

opped br

d from her fingers an

only sound in the roo

shook h

N

sor

t sorry. You knew. You knew, and you let me bur

uldn't

anding. She remembered her mother sobbing into a pillow. She remembered the

dro in the middle of the night

d ans

stened to

ad said

him through

u ever

caped before sh

ro's fac

r her, but sh

on

el

wer

a weapon he had been carrying for years

" he

broke all

d, "That was

sh sounded

diately turned

crash

a s

un from benea

stared

e that night, there was no arrogance in his

ter

re," he

s happ

dn't

stepped into the c

t the far end o

in a whi

ned the fr

ew the shape of her shoulders. The way she held

ent

ng directly a

er hand and point

y," she w

ng through

o stumble

reamed h

rd him, her phone vibr

ew me

father'

andro is dead, do not let

look

as bleeding

ina wa

pstairs, a man

Chapt