"Have you thought this through, Elena?" she asked slowly. "I've always believed Luca cared for you in his way. I simply couldn't understand why he never made it official. Perhaps I should speak with him—"
I laughed softly, the sound hollow even to my own ears.
"There's no need. What we had... it was never a real relationship. We never formalized anything. Eight years of existing in some undefined space between strangers and lovers. If I don't end this now, I'll have wasted my youth on a man who couldn't even be bothered to claim me."
Mina fell silent. The revelation that we'd shared a roof for eight years without ever defining what we were to each other seemed to settle something in her mind.
She didn't try to dissuade me again.
"Then I'll support whatever you decide," she said quietly. "You're a Caruso. You deserve better than shadows."
Before I slept that night, I set a countdown widget on my phone.
Three days.
The next morning, I asked my mother to send local specialties from our family's territory—a proper tribute to thank Aunt Mina for a decade of protection, and a way to bid her farewell.
That evening, a truck arrived laden with packages wrapped in the Caruso colors. I gave the driver directions to Mina's address, already composing the words I'd say when I saw her.
I hadn't expected to encounter Luca downstairs.
Celina Vitale's slender silhouette trailed behind him like a shadow, both of them carrying bags from the market—household essentials, the mundane trappings of domesticity. They looked, for all the world, like a young couple settling into a new nest.
Aunt Mina descended the stairs to greet me just as this tableau unfolded before us. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off before she could draw breath.
"The package from Mother arrived. Make sure you check the dates on everything—she'd be furious if anything spoiled."
I didn't spare Luca Haskins so much as a glance, yet this time, unexpectedly, he volunteered an explanation.
"Elena, don't misunderstand. Celina's previous place wasn't secure—too exposed. I helped her find somewhere safer. I had no idea your aunt lived in this building." His eyes swept over the boxes the driver was unloading. "Why so many supplies?"