The next morning, Marlowe Research Institute's New York headquarters called.

"Eliana, the final list for the research fellowship closes today," Caroline said.

Caroline directed Marlowe's Center for Port Security and Financial Crime Research on the East Coast. Three years earlier, she had offered me a lead research fellowship in New York, with my own team and a federal port-security project under my name.

It was the kind of chance people waited half a career for, and I had turned it down every time with neat excuses: unfinished papers, ongoing field studies, Luca needing someone who understood North Dock. The truth was simpler and more humiliating. I couldn't bear to leave him.

Now there was nothing left to bear.

"I'll go," I said.

Caroline let out a relieved breath. "Good. Three-year appointment. The first year will be rough, but this is the best move you could make for yourself."

After I finished the transfer papers and research handover, a few people carefully asked if I had fought with Luca again. I closed my folder and said, "We didn't fight. We broke up." The office went quiet for a few seconds, and no one asked anything else.

With the fellowship approval signed, the last official tie keeping me in Chicago was gone. Then I sent my flight details to Ava.

[I'm leaving for New York in three days. Dinner before I go?]

She replied almost instantly.

[You finally remembered I exist. Spade Casino opened a new billiards room. Come shoot with me. If we run into the Moretti crowd, I'll roast them until they question their bloodline.]

I smiled despite myself.

Spade Casino was one of the Morettis' biggest earners and Luca's favorite playground. I used to avoid it because every visit left me feeling like prey under a spotlight. That night, for the first time, I walked in without fear.

Past the main hall, at the end of the second-floor corridor, two guards stood outside a members-only billiards room. Ava was already inside warming up.

"There you are." She looked me up and down. "You look alive. I thought you'd show up like a kitten drowned in rainwater."

I picked a cue from the wall. "Sorry to disappoint."

"That's more like it. You used to be the pool champ who could shut a room full of men up without raising your voice."

My father taught me billiards. He said the harder your heart shook, the steadier your hand had to be.

Later, Luca said I looked too cold when I played, too much like a woman who belonged in lecture halls and federal briefings, not the woman standing beside him. So I stopped.

I was lining up the next shot when familiar voices came from the corridor.

"Luca, that clean run last time was insane. When are you teaching me?"

"Please," another man said. "Other than Vivian, who has ever seen Luca teach anyone himself?"

The door opened. Luca entered first, with Nico, Dante, and Vivian behind him. Vivian had her hand tucked around Luca's arm. He didn't pull away, and he didn't explain.

Nico spotted me and whistled. "Well, look who it is. The woman who almost became Mrs. Moretti."

Someone laughed. "Her mouth said breakup, but her body knew exactly where to go. One day, and she's already back at Spade."

"Guess Luca's [Whatever] was too cold last night. She came to make peace."

Ava's face went dark, but I lifted a hand before she could tear into them. I bent over the table and aimed. The blue ball dropped.

Nico got louder when I ignored him. "Eliana, don't pretend you can't hear us. Luca's right there. Aren't you going to sit with him? You know the routine. Say, 'What a coincidence,' take the seat beside him, and it's over."

I knew Luca was only a few steps away. He was probably wearing that cool, indifferent expression, neither explaining nor stopping anyone. He was waiting for me to swallow the humiliation and walk over with a smile. If I did, the airport would become nothing, just another story they could laugh about later.

I had done it too many times because I was afraid of cold wars, unanswered texts, and everyone saying I was too sensitive. That part of me had died in the airport terminal.

I sank the last red ball, straightened, and handed the cue to a server. "Let's go."

Ava blinked once, grabbed her bag, and followed.

As we passed Luca, Vivian laughed softly. "Don't worry. Isn't she always like this? She'll come back in a couple of days."

I stopped and turned. Vivian leaned against the table with her chin lifted. I had seen that look every time I fought with Luca because of her. With one careless line, she could turn all my hurt into entertainment.

Luca shifted half a step, putting himself in front of her. The movement was small, but the meaning was clear.

Again, he protected Vivian first.

I felt too tired even to be angry, so I smiled. "You're right. I used to be."

Vivian's smile faltered. I didn't explain. I walked out with Ava, leaving the billiards room and its laughter behind me.

A light rain had started outside Spade Casino. Ava opened her umbrella and held her temper for three seconds before snapping, "What is wrong with those people? Who told them you'd always turn back?"

I watched the neon ripple in the puddles. "I did. Every time I went back."

Ava fell silent and tilted the umbrella farther over my shoulder.

Back at the hotel, after a shower, I picked up my phone out of habit and saw Vivian's latest post sitting at the top of my feed.

Nine photos.

In the first, she sat on Spade Casino's rooftop terrace while Luca stood behind her, blocking the wind. In the second, she held a cue, and Luca leaned over to adjust her angle. In the third, the casino manager delivered a custom chip marked with a V while someone joked that she looked like the real lady of Spade. The rest showed Luca watching an old movie with her, playing arcade basketball, and drinking mocktails at the bar.

I had wanted to do those ordinary things with him. Luca always said arcade games were noisy, movies were childish, bars were crowded, and none of it meant anything. I thought he disliked lively places. It turned out he only disliked them with me.

The comments were full of teasing.

[You two look like family.]

[The way Luca looks at Vivian? So spoiled.]

[Some people should really learn their place.]

I stared at the photos for a long moment, then laughed and liked the post.

Less than a minute later, Luca called. I didn't answer. His messages came one after another.

[What is that supposed to mean?]

[Eliana, how long are you going to keep this up?]

[Vivian posted a few photos. You liked them on purpose to embarrass everyone?]

Once, I would have explained. I would have asked why he always noticed Vivian's embarrassment but never my pain. Now I only set the phone face down.

A while later, Luca sent another message.

[Your father's cue case is still in my private room at Spade. If you really want to end this, come take it yourself.]

That cue was one of the few things my father had left me.

Fine. I would go once.

No one stopped me at the rooftop lounge. The door was open a crack, low laughter slipping through it. My father's old leather cue case lay on the coffee table, right where everyone could see it. I pushed the door in.

"Surprise!"

Confetti rained from the ceiling. There was no serious conversation waiting for me, only Luca on the sofa with a glass of water, completely sober, while Vivian leaned beside him with a sweet little smile.

Nico pointed his phone camera at me. "See? Told you she'd come. Mention one sentimental toy, and she runs."

Someone shoved a cardboard sign toward me.

[Stop sulking. Come home.]

Vivian clapped lightly. "Don't be mad, Eliana. We just wanted to prove a point."

I stood in the doorway and felt the last warmth in me go cold. "What point?"

"That you can say you're leaving all you want, but if Luca gives you one reason to come back, you will." Nico grinned. "I lost the Warehouse Three bet, but I won this one."

I looked at Luca. He wasn't laughing, but he hadn't stopped them either. He set down his glass and frowned as if I were the one making the room uncomfortable.

"Eliana, don't make this ugly. Nico doesn't know where the line is, but since you're here, sit down."

Even then, he thought the only problem was that Nico had gone too far. Even then, he believed offering me a seat could erase the humiliation.

I walked to the table and reached for my father's cue case. Before my fingers touched the latch, something pale and smooth slid from beneath the leather strap and dropped across my wrist.

For a second, my body forgot how to breathe. The small white snake coiled against my hand, cool and alive, and the room blurred into the old memory of a locked storage room, boys laughing outside the door, something moving in the dark near my ankle.

I jerked back so hard I hit the cabinet behind me. My shoulder cracked against the edge, and my breath came in short, ugly bursts.

Vivian rushed over and scooped up the snake as if it were a ribbon that had fallen from her hair. "Oh my God, Snow slipped out. Eliana, relax. She's a corn snake. She doesn't bite."

Nico laughed under his breath. "She looks like she saw a ghost."

Luca stood, but instead of coming to me, he looked at Vivian first. "Did you know she was scared of snakes?"

Vivian hugged the snake to her chest, eyes wide and innocent. "No. You know Snow is harmless. I wouldn't have brought her if I knew Eliana was this afraid."

Luca turned to me with a helpless frown. "Eliana, it's not venomous. Vivian didn't mean it. You're shaking over a pet."

Something in me went very still. He had seen my face go white and my hands tremble, but the first person he protected was still Vivian.

I picked up the cue case with fingers that barely obeyed me and placed the lake house key on the cabinet by the door. "Here's your key."

Luca's expression shifted. "Do you have to do this?"

"I don't have to do anything anymore. I'm done."

The room slowly quieted. Vivian lowered her voice until she almost sounded sincere. "Eliana, I admit I can be sharp, but Luca and I grew up together. If a harmless snake and a few photos are enough to break you, how are you supposed to survive as part of the Moretti family?"

I looked at her. "Why would I want to survive as part of the Moretti family?"

Vivian froze. I didn't wait for her answer. I turned and left.

"She looks really mad this time."

"She's acting. Isn't she always?"

"Luca, let her cool off for two days."

I had only gone down one flight when the door on the upper landing opened. The stairwell was dim, washed in the cold green glow of the exit sign, and I stopped in the shadows with my father's cue case pressed against my chest. Vivian's voice floated down first.

"Are you really not going after her?"

Luca answered after a beat. "Let her calm down."

"You're that sure she'll come back?"

"She will," he said. "She has no family in Chicago and no one else to rely on. She's just sick of your games right now."

My fingers tightened around the cue case handle.

Vivian was quiet for a second, then laughed. "Then what if she finds out about ten years ago?"

Luca's voice sharpened. "Vivian."

"What? It's been forever." She sounded amused. "What if she finds out you only chased her because you lost a card game on opening night at Spade? You had to go after the hardest woman in the room, that orphan research fellow with no family and no backing."

The cold in my chest spread until I could barely feel my hands.

"Didn't you say women like Eliana were the easiest to fool? Give her a little warmth and she'll grab it like a lifeline."

"Enough."

For the first time that night, Luca sounded truly angry. "That was ten years ago. No one mentions it again."

"Why not?" Vivian snapped. "You really did fall for her later, didn't you? So what? If the beginning was a joke, that doesn't make everything after fake."

Luca said nothing.

Suddenly, years of small humiliations lined up and clicked into place: why Luca refused to let me meet the real Moretti elders in our first year, why his friends always looked at me with that knowing contempt, why every time I couldn't take their jokes anymore, he only said, "That's just how they are. Don't take it to heart."

In their eyes, I had never been a woman Luca chose seriously. I was a chip on a table, a dare he accepted after losing a hand, and I had mistaken the punchline for love.

Beyond the door, Vivian lowered her voice. "Don't blame me for being blunt. She liked my photos tonight because she wanted you to coax her, right? A woman like that only needs you to turn around and crook your finger. She'll come back."

Luca didn't deny it. He believed I would come back.

I went down the stairs one step at a time. At the front desk, I put a note into an envelope and asked them to give it to Luca later.

[Everything has been returned. Don't contact me again.]

The receptionist recognized me. "Miss Lowe, should I inform Mr. Moretti now?"

"Tomorrow is fine."

I didn't want to see Luca chase me out, and I didn't want to hear him explain that it was all in the past. Outside the casino, I called Caroline.

"Can I go to New York early?"

She paused only a second. "Of course. The research residence isn't ready, so you'll stay near the institute first. Earliest flight is six tomorrow morning. Can you make it?"

I checked my watch. 1:17 a.m. "I can."

On the way back to the hotel, I blocked Luca, then Nico, Dante, Vivian, and everyone else in the Moretti circle. At the end, I saw Luca's first message to me from ten years ago.

[Are you free tomorrow night? I'd like to take you to dinner.]

Back then, I had just finished a field study on North Dock security for the Morettis' legitimate expansion. Because I refused to soften a risk finding, a small-time captain cornered me outside Spade Casino. Luca stepped in, put his coat over my shoulders, and said, "Don't be scared. Not everyone in Chicago is rotten."

I thought that was the beginning of my rescue. It turned out to be a task he accepted after losing a card game.

I deleted the message.

The hotel room was silent. I packed, checked out, and took a cab to the airport. The terminal glass reflected my pale face, but I didn't cry. Maybe when the heart truly dies, tears stop coming.

Before boarding, an unknown number sent me a message.

[Eliana, Luca is looking for you. Where did you go?]

I powered off my phone. As the plane lifted, Chicago's lights fell away beneath me. North Dock, Spade Casino, the lake house--all of them shrank into blurred points of light.

I had finally left the game.