The night stretched endlessly across the coast, a blanket of stars shimmering over the restless sea. The waves crashed softly against the cliffs, whispering secrets to anyone who cared to listen. But inside the villa, silence reigned — a heavy, charged silence that seemed to breathe between two rooms divided by longing and restraint.

Isabella sat by her window again, sleepless, her mind replaying the scene over and over — Dante’s voice, the raw intensity in his eyes, the confession she hadn’t been ready to hear.

She had told him to leave, but every fiber of her being had wanted him to stay.

The soft glow of moonlight painted her...