Chapter 3

Seraphina POV:

I stared at Dante's message, the words glowing with his casual and suffocating authority.

I didn't reply.

Deleting his threat wasn't enough. I needed to erase him.

Just as my finger hovered over the block button, a new notification popped up. A friend request.

From Isabella Falcone.

A cold, humorless smile touched my lips. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence. I accepted.

Instantly, a message appeared. It was a picture of Dante, slumped in a leather armchair, a half-empty bottle of whiskey on the table beside him. He looked drunk, his tie loosened, his eyes unfocused.

Isabella's caption followed. He's heartbroken that I'm getting married tomorrow. Poor thing.

I scoffed. He didn't look heartbroken. He looked like an alcoholic drowning his sorrows.

A voice note followed. The background was loud, filled with the clinking of glasses and muffled music. But over it all, I could hear Dante's slurred voice, thick with liquor and self-pity.

"Isabella... don't marry him... I love you... only you..."

The words were a pathetic parody of a romantic confession. Then came her final, triumphant bombshell: a photo of her and Dante, tangled together in bedsheets, her face smugly pressed against his bare shoulder.

Her final message was simple, dripping with malice. Loser.

A wave of something akin to pity washed over me. Not for myself, but for the sheer delusion of it all.

I had spent seven years of my life in love with a madman-and he had a friend who was just as insane.

My fingers moved slowly over the keyboard. I found a digital gift card app, loaded it with a single dollar, and attached a note.

No refunds on used goods. Buy yourself some class.

I hit send. Then, with a satisfying finality, I blocked and deleted Isabella Falcone.

I switched back to my chat with Dante. His message still sat there, an order waiting to be obeyed.

"Come back when you're done with your tantrum. Don't make me come for you."

I blocked him, too.

For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, my world was finally, blessedly, quiet.