Noemie heard the knock.....sharp, impatient. It came like a drumbeat echoing through her chest. She rose from the bed with a strange unease. Something in the air felt wrong.
She opened the door. Matteo stood there.
"Come," he said, gripping her hand before she could speak.
"Matteo, what....?"
He didn't answer. His grip was firm, almost desperate, as he pulled her toward his car. She resisted for a moment, but the look in his eyes wasn't violent....it was determined, cold, but haunted. Her heart skipped.
He opened the passenger door, almost ceremoniously, and guided her in. She didn't scream, didn't struggle.....some part of her was scared .
"Where are you taking me?" she whispered, voice shaking.
He didn't reply. Silence hung thick in the car, broken only by the hum of the engine. Streetlights blurred into streaks as they sped through the city. Noemie watched him from the corner of her eye, trying to read his intentions, but he remained blank. A statue made of fear, fury, and history.
Then she recognized the road.
Her throat dried. She knew where they were going. That place.
The place where Eliane ,was finally brought to her knees. The same place where Matteo's revenge began. A cold shiver crept up her spine.
Her breath turned shallow. This wasn't just about revenge. This was a reckoning.
Meanwhile, across the other side of the city, Tomasz sat behind the wheel, his arm resting on the window as he stole glances at Annelise. Matteo's car smelled like him—faint leather, cologne, and something metallic. The air felt tense, charged with something unsaid.
Annelise looked out the window, her fingers interlaced tightly in her lap.
"How about we take a day off?" Tomasz asked suddenly, his voice too casual.
She blinked. "What?"
"You know," he grinned, leaning toward her slightly, "Go somewhere. Just the two of us. Beach, hills, wherever."
Annelise's face stiffened. "Are you crazy? If Matteo even thinks I'm meeting you in secret.... it's over. For both of us."
Tomasz's expression didn't change. He looked ahead and said softly, "Then let it be over. If I have to go, I'll go in your lap."
Her eyes widened. She turned toward him slowly. Silence, but it wasn't hollow...it was vibrating with something fragile and raw.
"You're stupid," she whispered.
He laughed. "Maybe. But for you? Willingly."
She looked away, cheeks burning, lips parted slightly as if on the verge of saying something...but didn't.
And that pause, that moment where she didn't say no, told Tomasz everything.
He leaned closer. "Tonight. Late. Slip out of the quarter. I'll wait outside. Just us. One night."
She stared out the window, her throat tight. She felt like a bird who had forgotten the sky, but now...now someone had opened the door.
She didn't speak, but her silence was deafening.
Tomasz grinned like a child. "Yes!" he shouted, lifting both hands in the air.
"Tomasz! Watch out....."
The car veered sharply. Tires screeched. Tomasz tried to correct, but the momentum was already too strong. The car rolled once, then slammed into the side railing. It wasn't a massive crash, but enough to throw them off balance.
Annelise screamed, heart pounding in her throat.
When the car finally stilled, she was panting. Her hands shook. She turned to Tomasz, ready to yell...but he groaned dramatically and collapsed into her lap.
"I'm dying," he said, eyes squeezed shut.
"What? What happened...Tomasz?!"
"....of happiness," he added with a sly grin.
She stared at him, caught between anger and laughter.
"You idiot," she muttered, brushing a leaf from his hair. But her hands lingered on him, and her lips quivered...not with fear, but something far more dangerous.
The laughter felt like another world when the scene snapped back to Noemie.
She stood on a stage, her wrists were behind her back and ankles bound. Thick metal cuffs bit into her skin, and cold chains connected her to a rusted pole behind her. She was shivering, but not from the cold.
Her eyes scanned the room.....dark, familiar. The theater where Eliane had been dragged before the eyes of Matteo who once feared her. The irony wasn't lost on her.
"What are you planning?" she spat, eyes blazing with both fear and pride.
Matteo stood in the shadows. A soft light outlined his face, but his eyes.....his eyes were storms.
"Justice," he said simply. "The kind you carved into others."
"I'm not Professor."
"No," he agreed. "You're worse. She broke me because she was broken. You? You knew exactly what you were doing."
She shook her head, hair falling over her face. "I never hurt you like she did."
"You used me," he whispered. "You made me entertain you. And then you watched me fall."
Tears stung her eyes, but she didn't let them fall. "So what now? You chain me up? You humiliate me? Will that fix anything?"
Matteo turned his back on her, walking slowly toward the edge of the stage. "I don't know. But it'll make me feel something again."
His voice cracked. For a moment, she saw the boy he used to be...the one she had betrayed not with knives, but with words.