Carefully, gently, dabbed at the stains spreading across her skirt. His movements were solicitous. Protective. The movements of a man tending to something precious.

"Are you alright, Massima?" His voice was soft. Concerned. Human.

I stood there for a moment longer.

The afternoon sun was warm on my face, but I felt nothing but cold.

I didn't say another word.

I turned, hailed a black car from the line of Family-approved drivers waiting near the Social Club, and directed him to take me to the airport.

The announcement echoed through the private terminal, crackling through speakers that had seen better decades.

"Passengers traveling to America, please proceed to Gate T1 for check-in."

My phone buzzed one final time.

Another message from him.

Isabella. I think you owe Massima an apology.

I stared at the screen.

Three years.

Three years of silence. Of neglect. Of watching him pour every ounce of devotion he possessed into the memory of a woman who had abandoned him—while I stood beside him, invisible, bleeding out slowly from wounds he refused to acknowledge.

And now, at the end of everything, his final words to me were a demand that I apologize to her.

I didn't hesitate.

Blocked. Deleted.

I handed my identification documents to the security officer—passport, visa papers, the dissolution decree that marked the official end of my time as a Volpe.

The woman glanced at my information. Looked up. Her eyes flickered to the date on the decree.

"Dissolved today?"

I checked my luggage, straightened my coat, and met her gaze with a small, sharp smile.

"Yes. The blood oath is broken."

The air conditioning on the private plane was freezing—the kind of cold that seeped into bones and settled there like a permanent guest.

I asked the attendant for a cashmere blanket and wrapped myself in it tightly, cocooning myself against the chill and everything I was leaving behind.

I leaned back in the leather seat.

Sleep came fast and heavy, dragging me under before I could fight it. I didn't hear the takeoff announcement. Didn't feel the moment the wheels left the ground and carried me away from Volpe territory forever.

Only one thought remained, drifting through the darkness like smoke.

Goodbye, Nico.

May you and your Massima rot together in the empire you built on my bones.