I held the bag on my shoulder so tightly my fingers started to lose feeling. Whatever was inside it felt heavier than anything physical—heavier than grief, heavier than blame, heavier than everything I had survived so far.
“Gabriel’s—”
The words never made it out.
Something slammed into me from the side. I lost my balance and hit the marble floor hard, pain shooting through my wrist on impact. The bag shifted violently, and for a second I thought I’d lose it—the urn inside almost slipping free. I pulled it back against my chest just in time, holding on like my life depended on it.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” I shouted, voice sharp with shock.
It was Noel.
Lena’s son. Fresh out of the hospital like nothing had happened, like a simple stomach ache was enough to bring the entire world to its knees. He looked up at me with a spoiled kind of confidence, the kind kids don’t just have—they inherit.
“Why don’t you watch where you’re going, stupid?” he shot back. “What are you even doing here?”
Vincenzo’s voice cut through the air instantly.
“Noel. Enough.”
Then his attention snapped to me, colder. “Olivia, he’s just a child. Don’t make a scene out of this.”
Lena stepped in softly, like she always did—gentle voice, careful movements, practiced innocence. Her hand rested on Vincenzo’s chest as if she belonged there.
“I’m really sorry,” she said quietly. “It’s my fault again. Noel and I can just leave.”
Vincenzo’s jaw tightened. His eyes stayed fixed on me.
“No. This is on you,” he said flatly, pointing. “You’re the one causing problems.”
Something in me cracked—quietly, but deeply. The kind of break that doesn’t heal cleanly. They looked like they belonged together standing there, a unit. A family. And I was just… the leftover piece no one wanted to admit still existed.
Noel suddenly reached for my bag again, tugging at the zipper.
“I’m hungry. What’s in there? Food?”
The urn slipped.
It dropped to the floor with a heavy sound that made my stomach collapse.
“No—stop! Don’t touch that!”
He crouched anyway, curious, reaching with careless hands. “What is it?”
I shoved him back before I could think twice. Harder than I meant to. Or maybe exactly how I meant it. I didn’t care anymore. Everything I cared about was already gone.
Vincenzo exploded.
“Are you out of your mind?!” he shouted. “He just got out of the hospital! He’s sick, and you push him like that?”
Noel started crying and immediately latched onto me again, grabbing my hair and pulling hard enough to blur my vision with tears.
Through it all, I managed to speak.
“It’s Gabriel’s,” I choked out. “It’s my son’s.”
Lena gently pulled Vincenzo back, her voice soft as silk. “It’s okay, Vincenzo. Let it go. If it belongs to Gabriel, Noel shouldn’t touch it.”
Vincenzo gave a short, mocking laugh.
“This is my house. I decide what happens here.”
I bent down, picked up the urn, and held it against my chest so tightly it hurt to breathe. Then I turned and walked away without another word.
Behind me, I heard him scoff. I heard the judgment in it. I heard how small I’d become in his world.
And then—like I was nothing more than an inconvenience—he escorted Lena and Noel out as though they were honored guests leaving a banquet.
That night, the mansion was too quiet.
I sat alone in the bedroom Vincenzo no longer shared and packed my things in silence. My hands shook the entire time. I filled out the divorce papers one page after another, forcing my fingers to obey me. Gabriel’s urn sat beside me on the bed the whole time, like he was still keeping me company.
I didn’t sleep. I just waited for morning.
**
That night, I dreamed of Gabriel again.
He was walking through a long hallway made entirely of glass—no walls, no shadows, no reflections that made sense. His small feet moved slowly, hesitantly. He was crying, holding his stomach like it hurt again.
He kept calling out for him.
“Dad? Dad, where are you?”
Not me. Never me.
Vincenzo.
Even in the dream, that truth cut deeper than anything else.
I ran after him, shouting his name, begging him to stop. But no matter how fast I moved, he drifted farther away, like smoke slipping through my hands.
Eventually I collapsed.
“I’m sorry,” I cried. “I’m so sorry, baby… I should’ve saved you. I should’ve never let you go alone…”
I kept repeating it until I couldn’t breathe anymore.
**
When I woke up, I was already on the floor.
My hands were still folded like I’d been praying in my sleep. I didn’t even remember doing it. But I was praying—begging for peace for a child who no longer had to ask for anything.
The mansion stayed quiet around me, too perfect, too empty. Vincenzo’s world was built on power and fear, but to me it had become something else entirely—just a beautiful cage with no warmth inside.
Then everything came back in pieces.
Vincenzo’s distance. The way his affection faded without warning. Lena’s return, and how quickly he turned colder than I had ever seen him before.
He started comparing.
“Noel’s a strong kid,” he once said over whiskey. “Confident. Healthy. Disciplined.”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence.
We both knew what he meant.
Weeks before Gabriel got sick, he had already said something worse.
“Sometimes I wonder if that boy is really mine,” Vincenzo said once, staring at me like I was the problem. “And if he is… he won’t survive anything I built. Too weak. Too fragile. That kind of blood ruins empires.”
I couldn’t even respond.
I had spent years trying to become someone he wouldn’t discard. Softer when needed. Stronger when demanded. Quiet when convenient. Loyal at all times.
But I never thought he would start discarding our child too.
Gabriel loved him. Worshipped him, really. He would show Vincenzo everything—drawings, little handmade medals, anything he thought might earn a glance. But Vincenzo never looked.
Not once.
My son died without ever having his father sit beside him. Without hearing his voice when it mattered most. Without the man he adored even lifting a hand to stay.
Later that night, I heard footsteps outside—uneven, heavy.
I opened the door slightly.
Vincenzo was there, drunk, leaning into Lena as she held him upright. Her arm wrapped around his waist like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“You sure you don’t want to check on her?” she murmured, brushing his face gently. “It’s late. She might still be awake.”
Vincenzo laughed under his breath.
“Why would I?” he said. “She acted like trash toward Noel.”
Lena guided him away without hesitation, toward her room. The door didn’t even close properly.
I heard everything.
I didn’t move. I didn’t cry. I just sat there, staring at nothing, like my body had already given up on reacting.
**
In the morning, I did what I always did.
I made hangover soup.
The kitchen smelled warm, like routine, like nothing had changed—even though everything had. Vincenzo came in later, rubbing his temple, avoiding my eyes.
“I got home late,” he said casually. “Didn’t want to wake you, so I stayed in the guest room.”
“Okay,” I replied.
He relaxed a little. Like everything was normal again. Like I was still the same wife who stayed quiet, who accepted everything without question.
Then I slid the papers across the table.
The divorce documents.
