The Game He Played With My Heart

I had only gone down one flight when the door on the upper landing opened. The stairwell was dim, washed in the cold green glow of the exit sign, and I stopped in the shadows with my father's cue case pressed against my chest. Vivian's voice floated down first.

"Are you really not going after her?"

Luca answered after a beat. "Let her calm down."

"You're that sure she'll come back?"

"She will," he said. "She has no family in Chicago and no one else to rely on. She's just sick of your games right now."

My fingers tightened around the cue case handle.

Vivian was quiet for a second, then laughed. "Then what if she finds out about ten years ago?"

Luca's voice sharpened. "Vivian."

"What? It's been forever." She sounded amused. "What if she finds out you only chased her because you lost a card game on opening night at Spade? You had to go after the hardest woman in the room, that orphan research fellow with no family and no backing."

The cold in my chest spread until I could barely feel my hands.

"Didn't you say women like Eliana were the easiest to fool? Give her a little warmth and she'll grab it like a lifeline."

"Enough."

For the first time that night, Luca sounded truly angry. "That was ten years ago. No one mentions it again."

"Why not?" Vivian snapped. "You really did fall for her later, didn't you? So what? If the beginning was a joke, that doesn't make everything after fake."

Luca said nothing.

Suddenly, years of small humiliations lined up and clicked into place: why Luca refused to let me meet the real Moretti elders in our first year, why his friends always looked at me with that knowing contempt, why every time I couldn't take their jokes anymore, he only said, "That's just how they are. Don't take it to heart."

In their eyes, I had never been a woman Luca chose seriously. I was a chip on a table, a dare he accepted after losing a hand, and I had mistaken the punchline for love.

Beyond the door, Vivian lowered her voice. "Don't blame me for being blunt. She liked my photos tonight because she wanted you to coax her, right? A woman like that only needs you to turn around and crook your finger. She'll come back."

Luca didn't deny it. He believed I would come back.

I went down the stairs one step at a time. At the front desk, I put a note into an envelope and asked them to give it to Luca later.

[Everything has been returned. Don't contact me again.]

The receptionist recognized me. "Miss Lowe, should I inform Mr. Moretti now?"

"Tomorrow is fine."

I didn't want to see Luca chase me out, and I didn't want to hear him explain that it was all in the past. Outside the casino, I called Caroline.

"Can I go to New York early?"

She paused only a second. "Of course. The research residence isn't ready, so you'll stay near the institute first. Earliest flight is six tomorrow morning. Can you make it?"

I checked my watch. 1:17 a.m. "I can."

On the way back to the hotel, I blocked Luca, then Nico, Dante, Vivian, and everyone else in the Moretti circle. At the end, I saw Luca's first message to me from ten years ago.

[Are you free tomorrow night? I'd like to take you to dinner.]

Back then, I had just finished a field study on North Dock security for the Morettis' legitimate expansion. Because I refused to soften a risk finding, a small-time captain cornered me outside Spade Casino. Luca stepped in, put his coat over my shoulders, and said, "Don't be scared. Not everyone in Chicago is rotten."

I thought that was the beginning of my rescue. It turned out to be a task he accepted after losing a card game.

I deleted the message.

The hotel room was silent. I packed, checked out, and took a cab to the airport. The terminal glass reflected my pale face, but I didn't cry. Maybe when the heart truly dies, tears stop coming.

Before boarding, an unknown number sent me a message.

[Eliana, Luca is looking for you. Where did you go?]

I powered off my phone. As the plane lifted, Chicago's lights fell away beneath me. North Dock, Spade Casino, the lake house--all of them shrank into blurred points of light.

I had finally left the game.