Last Chance
Valeria
“What an asshole,” I mutter before I can stop myself, slamming the car door shut.
I regret it immediately when the motion aggravates my headache, though thankfully the pain fades quickly.
Stephen chuckles as he slides behind the wheel and starts the engine.
The motor growls to life.
“And now you’re mocking me too?”
“Don’t take it out on me,” he protests as he pulls out of the parking space. “You’re the one who married him, not me.”
I turn toward him.
“I married him,” I correct sharply. “Past tense. And I regret it.”
He doesn’t look at me. His hands remain calm on the steering wheel.
“No, you don’t. And that’s exactly the problem.”
The words hit hard, and I fall silent because he’s right.
No... I don’t regret marrying Dante.
What I regret is that we’re no longer married and that he’s about to marry someone else.
I still can’t breathe properly when I think about it.
I clench my fists to keep from crying.
While I was fighting to survive, struggling to piece my memories back together, he had moved on. With my former best friend.
I know he believed I was dead, but it doesn’t erase the pain. Or the metallic taste in my mouth. Or the feeling of having been replaced, erased.
“I’m sorry,” Stephen murmurs after a few seconds. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“You don’t need to apologize for telling the truth.”
My voice is calmer now, tired.
The car exits the parking garage and merges into Paris traffic. Headlights streak across the windshield. The city keeps moving, indifferent to the quiet devastation inside me.
For several seconds, nobody speaks.
Stephen taps his fingers lightly against the steering wheel.
“Tell me what happened at the lab,” he says eventually.
I stare at the red taillights ahead of us.
“Dante was waiting for me. He saw everything through the monitor in the bathroom.”
Those words contain everything.
The anticipation.
The trap.
The failure.
“Everything we did was pointless. He must’ve backed up all the files before I got there and probably set up a tracking system on the sensitive directories. By now, he knows exactly what I tried to do.”
“That might not be a bad thing. He knows you didn’t steal anything. And he let you leave.”
I don’t answer immediately.
Let you leave.
Like someone releasing a person they no longer consider dangerous.
Or no longer care about at all.
At least she doesn’t push me away.
The echo of his words feels both like an accusation and a declaration.
A painful reminder of our new reality.
He’s with her now.
“Maybe. But we’re back where we started. The files I tried to encrypt are still unprotected.”
Stephen nods slowly.
I rub my temples.
Outside, Paris slips by—indifferent, glowing, utterly unaware of what has just collapsed.
No element of surprise left.
No backup plan.
*
Back at the manor, I dial Hugo’s number.
“Valeria, I’m glad to hear your voice,” he says the moment he picks up. “How are you?”
His voice is strangely rough. Concern immediately twists in my chest.
“What’s wrong?”
A long sigh crackles through the line.
“I saw Anita again.”
“Your ex-wife? And?”
What could have shaken him this badly?
“Nothing. I didn’t speak to her. She didn’t see me.”
I fall silent. I know his pain too well. There’s nothing I can do for him except be there.
He pulls himself together quickly.
“What about you? How did it go?”
He wants to change the subject.
So I tell him everything.
“So what are you going to do now?” he asks on the other end of the line.
I pace back and forth across my bedroom.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know if he’ll let me anywhere near the lab now.”
Silence stretches before he finally suggests:
“Why not go through Andrea? He’s less emotionally involved. Maybe you could talk to him. Tell him exactly what’s going on.”
I shake my head, even though he can’t see me.
“Ask him to go behind his brother’s back? No. I would never do that to them.”
I let out a long sigh, sit down on my bed, and lean against the wall.
“I have to tell Dante the truth. I should’ve done it from the start, but...”
“You’re not sure he’ll believe you,” Hugo finishes gently.
I close my eyes and exhale.
“No. It’s my word against Bianca’s. And I don’t know which one of us he’ll choose to believe.”
The silence that follows is heavy with unspoken thoughts before I finally confess to the man who’s become my brother in every way that matters:
“Sometimes when I look at him, I forget he isn’t mine anymore. That he’s with her now. It hurts. And at the same time... I resent him so much for replacing me.”
“It’s human to feel all of that,” Hugo says quietly.
A humorless laugh escapes me.
“The worst part is that since seeing him again, smelling him, hearing his voice... memories keep coming back. Gestures. Laughter. Promises. And all of it just to realize they’re only memories now. Nothing else.”
I close my eyes for a second and wipe away a tear with the back of my hand.
“Sorry for the self-pity session.”
“Don’t apologize,” Hugo says. “You still love him. There’s no shame in that.”
I don’t respond.
Instead, I tell him what I’ve decided.
“I’m going to talk to Dante. I’ll tell him everything. Bianca. Hector Wald. I’ll convince him to reinforce the security around NRX-889.”
It’s time to lay all the cards on the table.
What he chooses to do afterward will be up to him.
This is my last chance before his wedding.
The only one I have left.
And the riskiest.
Cold sweat spreads down my back.
Will he believe me?
Or will he think this is a desperate move — that I’m willing to invent anything to sow doubt hours before the ceremony? That I can’t accept losing him for good?
That I’m acting out of love instead of conviction.
And maybe that’s true.
I don’t have an answer for that.
But if I do nothing, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.
And that much, I know for certain.