Chapter 12
His heart crashed against his ribs as he scanned the penthouse, half expecting–hoping–Aris would appear from
around a corner.
“Aria…” he called her name again and again, each attempt more desperate than the last
An unthinkable thought began crystallizing in his mind.
Had she actually left him?
No. That couldn’t be right.
“Aria, if this is some kind of test, it needs to stop now.” His voice echoed through the empty rooms. “I know things have been weird lately, but Sofia and I are just friends. You’ve got to believe me.”
As he moved through their home, the absences suddenly became glaring. The framed photo from Lake Como. The worn paperback she kept on the coffee table. The throw blanket she’d always curl up in.
All gone.
How could everything just vanish like this?
Alessandro felt like he was losing his grip. The nightmare from his nap replayed in vivid detail as he tried her phone again, fingers fumbling.
Nothing but ringtone. When he texted, he got the dreaded red exclamation point.
She’d blocked him.
His breath caught in his throat, his hands trembling as the reality sank in.
He checked her Instagram, her Facebook–accounts he rarely bothered with–only to find they’d been deactivated. Every digital trace of her, erased.
His mind raced through possibilities. With both her parents gone–her father when she was just a child, her mother to cancer two years ago–where would she go?
He started calling her friends.
“Hey, it’s Alex. Is Aria with you by any chance?”
“What? No. Why, what’s going on?”
After the tenth identical conversation, reality began to sink in. None of his friends had seen her either.
A wave of raw desperation crashed over him. It felt like he’d slipped into that nightmare world where Aria simply
didn’t exist.
08:35
I Love You So Much. But I Just Don’t Like You’Artymo
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Chapter 12
The feelings he’d taken for granted now overwhelmed him completely. Her absence felt like a physical wound–as if someone had carved out something vital.
“Aria, please…” His voice broke, hoarse from shouting. “This isn’t funny anymore. Just come home.”
His eyes were red–rimmed and wild, like a man watching his world collapse.
But why would she leave? The question hammered at him.
Every recent interaction flashed through his mind. His attention to Sofia. His dismissal of Aria’s concerns.
And that moment–when she’d tensed hearing him speak Italian on the phone with Marcus.
“Did Aria know Italian?” he asked suddenly.
The housekeeper, eyeing his disheveled state with concern, nodded. “Miss Collins has been taking language lessons for years. She had a tutor come in twice weekly. I thought you knew?”
With those words, everything clicked horribly into place.
Das I Let Don’t Like
