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Chapter 16
The long flight helped Skylar adjust to the time difference naturally.
By eleven, exhaustion hit. She barely made it to bed before collapsing.
At two AM, her phone jolted her awake.
Seeing her mom’s number, she answered groggily.
Instead, a familiar voice, tight with anger, cut through the dark.
“What gave you the right to run off to Italy without a word?”
Callias.
Skylar snapped awake.
She switched on her lamp, glancing at the clock. “It’s two AM in Florence, brother.”
Each word struck him like a knife. His voice turned harsh.
“I told you never to call me that!”
“But that’s what we are – siblings on the same family registry. That’s a fact we can’t change.”
Her calm statement of the truth that had always stood between them pushed him over the edge.
The panic he’d been holding back exploded into cruel words.
“Did you think about us being siblings all those nights in my bed?”
Silence fell between them.
Callias knew he’d gone too far, but didn’t apologize.
He desperately needed proof,
Proof that Skylar still loved him.
So he let the cruel words hang, waiting for her reaction.
Only silence answered.
He wondered if she’d hung up.
His heart raced in the quiet, dragging his sanity down into darkness.
Just before he completely lost control, she finally spoke.
08:59
Addio To The Stand–In Past, This Time I Chose To Reclaim My Own Life
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Lilapter 10
“I’ve never regretted what happened between us, Callias. Back then, I truly loved you.”
“But love isn’t bulletproof. It might survive outside judgment, but it can’t survive a rotten core.”
“My mother never came between your parents. She has a clear conscience, and so do I. But there’s too much manipulation between us now. If we continue, we won’t be the only ones hurt. Let’s end this here, brother. It’s the best ending for everyone – you, me, Mom, Uncle Dan. Don’t you see that?”
Perfect endings.
Callias had stopped believing in those at twelve, when his parents divorced.
He’d blamed her mother, hated her while playing nice.
Watching her love for Skylar had filled him with jealousy.
Ten years of pretending had split him in two.
One half clinging to revenge, using Skylar’s love as a weapon.
The other half begging to let go, to accept his new family.
Day by day, he’d lost his way, drowning in feelings he couldn’t control.
The puppet master had become a puppet, his heart no longer his own.
Now at the end, he hadn’t gotten what he wanted.
His pawn had escaped the game, become an observer, and told him: His first move had been wrong.
Callias couldn’t accept that.
Just like he couldn’t accept that Skylar had moved on.
Desperately holding on, he needed one answer.
“Come back,” he pleaded. “Come home. Let’s talk. Please?”
