Chapter 347

• VALENTINA
• ~•~
• “Gustavo,” I whispered, my voice cracking despite my best efforts to hold steady. I cupped his face with my free hand, feeling the stubble and the fever heat of his skin beneath my palm. “I stayed silent because I was terrified. Not of you—not completely—but of this world. Of what digging into my mother’s death would mean for Luca. He was already so sick, fighting every day just to breathe. I couldn’t risk losing him too. I didn’t believe you ordered it. I hoped you didn’t. But I was drowning, trying to keep us alive in a sea of enemies. That doesn’t make me a traitor. It makes me human.”