Chapter 4
Dante fell silent.
I knew why.
He was thinking about which identity would be safest to give me.
I held my hand out to Camille first.
“Serafina Vescari.”
“I’m going through a divorce right now, so I came to ask Dante for a little help.”
I could see Dante relax slightly.
He picked up my excuse without hesitation.
“Her father hasn’t been in great health lately. He wants her back in Chicago for a while.”
Camille nodded.
But her eyes still moved between the two of us several times.
Then she gently slipped her arm around Dante’s.
“Are we interrupting something?”
Dante glanced at me instinctively.
Like he was checking my reaction.
I only shook my head calmly.
“No.”
“It’s almost over anyway.”
Camille looked back at me almost immediately.
“You’re getting divorced too?”
I smiled faintly.
“My husband is in love with someone else.”
Dante froze for a second and looked at me.
Camille only smiled softly.
“I understand that.”
“But things get better eventually.”
Then she looked up at Dante, her eyes warm.
“Dante really helped me a lot.”
“I honestly don’t think I could’ve gotten through my divorce without him.”
I nodded lightly.
Yeah.
He helped a lot.
Especially the hardest part.
He had already signed my divorce papers for me.
After that, Dante drove Camille away.
I turned around and went home.
Four hours before boarding.
I cleared every last thing of mine out of the house.
Three hours before boarding.
I edited together all the videos I had filmed earlier that day.
Two hours before boarding.
I finished editing the video, opened the screen recording on my phone, pointed the camera at myself, and pressed record.
Then I picked up my suitcase and closed the door behind me.
The only thing left on the nightstand was Dante’s copy of the divorce papers.
My plane had already taken off.
Meanwhile, Dante finally came home.
The living room was quiet.
Instinctively, he looked around.
The couch. The wine cabinet. The kitchen.
Every trace of me was gone.
Dante frowned.
A strange emptiness suddenly crawled up his chest.
He walked upstairs quickly.
Opened the walk-in closet.
Half of it was empty too.
And only then did Dante finally realize something.
I said I was shipping things back to Chicago.
But I had cleared out far too much.
He turned around abruptly.
Almost tore through the entire house looking for me.
But there was no one there.
Finally, he pushed open the bedroom door.
A phone sat quietly on the nightstand.
Beside it were the signed divorce papers.
Dante stared at the phone.
It was the same one I had been carrying around at the university earlier that day.
He picked it up and pressed play.
The first thing on the screen was the entrance to the law school.
I stood beneath the steps and smiled softly.
“Dante, do you remember this place?”
“You used to wait here for me after class every day.”
“Everyone thought you were some young politician or a Wall Street lawyer.”
“But really, you had just finished handling that Brooklyn shooting for my father.”
“There was blood on your cuff, and you still dared to come pick me up.”
The camera shifted slightly.
Then landed on the library.
“You always sat in the farthest corner.”
“Pretending to read legal files while actually handling business for the Vescari family.”
“One time, I snuck over and kissed you.”
“You didn’t even look up. You only said one thing.”
Lowering my voice, I copied Dante’s tone.
“Serafina. Stop it.”
I laughed first in the video.
But slowly, the smile faded.
The camera moved to the rose wall at the end of the running track.
“You used to wait for me here.”
“Back then, I really thought that if I ran toward you, you’d always catch me.”
The screen stayed silent for a long time.
Only the sound of the wind remained.
At the very end, I smiled faintly.
“So I was wrong.”
The final clip was the video I had recorded before leaving.
“Dante, I can’t believe we’ve known each other for ten years.”
“Seven years of loving you. Three years of marriage.”
“I really thought that if I stayed long enough, you would eventually love me a little too.”
“But some things can’t be earned no matter how hard you try.”
“So I’m letting you go.”
“And I’m finally letting myself go too.”
I fell silent for a moment.
Then I said only one last thing.
“Dante Valieri, we’re divorced.”
My palm covered the camera.
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