Chapter 79 What's Going On Between You And My Father?

• The air was cooler than usual that morning, crisp with a hint of rain that hadn’t yet fallen. I stepped outside the estate gates for the first time in weeks, craving the simple anonymity that came with being among strangers. Alessio had insisted on sending guards with me, of course, but I managed to shake them off under the guise of needing “alone time.”
• I wandered through the local street market—half searching for something, half trying not to think at all.
• A vendor handed me a cup of coffee, and I nodded in thanks. That was when I saw him.