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🌙 Chapter 9 – When Luca Chose Silence
Silence wasn't new to Luca Fernandes.
He had grown up learning how to use it—how to let it protect him, how to let it hide the parts of himself that bled too easily. Silence was safer than explanations. Safer than truth.
But that morning, it cost him more than he expected.
Noah Watson sat at the dining table, her phone face-down beside her plate. She hadn't touched her breakfast. Her eyes looked tired, distant—like she'd spent the whole night fighting thoughts she never asked for.
"Morning," Luca said gently.
Noah looked up.
And for the first time since they met, she didn't smile.
"Morning," she replied, just as polite, just as distant.
Something in Luca's chest tightened.
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The day moved strangely. Conversations happened around them, but not between them. Eva and Emily whispered. Sofia watched Noah carefully. Adrien noticed everything and said nothing.
Alina noticed too.
She leaned toward Luca casually in the living room.
"You look distracted," she said sweetly.
"I'm fine," Luca replied flatly.
"Funny," Alina smiled. "That's what people say when they're about to lose something."
Luca shot her a warning look. "Stop."
Alina raised her hands innocently. "I'm just observing."
Her eyes flicked toward Noah.
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That evening, Noah finally stood in front of Luca on the back porch—the same place where everything had once felt calm.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked quietly.
Luca's heart dropped. "Tell you what?"
She swallowed. "That you leave people behind. That someone paid the price last time you walked away."
He froze.
"Who told you that?" he asked.
Noah laughed softly, but there was no humor in it. "So it's true."
"It's not that simple," Luca said immediately.
"It never is," she replied. "That's what people say when they don't want to explain."
He wanted to tell her everything.
About the past.
About the guilt.
About why he ran instead of staying when things got ugly.
But fear won.
"I don't think this is the right time," Luca said quietly.
Noah stared at him, disbelief slowly turning into hurt.
"So you're choosing not to say anything."
Luca said nothing.
And that was his mistake.
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Inside the house, Sofia felt it before she saw it.
Noah walked in, eyes glossy, posture stiff.
"Did you talk?" Sofia asked carefully.
Noah nodded once. "He didn't."
Sofia's jaw tightened. "Coward."
Across the room, Adrien watched Noah walk past him without a word. Something inside him broke a little—and hardened at the same time.
Outside, Luca remained on the porch, staring into the dark.
Silence had always protected him.
But this time, it had pushed her away.
And Alina, watching from the doorway, smiled to herself.
Because the most dangerous choice Luca Fernandes ever made
wasn't loving Noah Watson—
It was choosing silence
when she needed the truth.
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