Melissa didn't return to the penthouse that night, She stayed with Sophie, crying herself into an exhausted, numb sleep.
And then next day, in fact She prepared her new Apartment and she spent three days away from Luca, didn't pick his calls.
And Luca found out where she is, a bouquet of two dozen black roses arrived at her apartment's door—a symbol of profound apology and desperate love in the language of flowers Luca had once taught her.
The card read only: "*Ti aspetto. Sempre.*" (I am waiting for you. Always.)
She didn't respond, For three days missed calls over sixty of Luca ,she just existed in a fog of grief.
And the day of her mother to be discharged was now so she picked up her mom and she explained the fact of her decision.
Helen take the shower as Melissa prepared something for her mother, and when she came out , offering not platitudes but a hug.
"You set a boundary, Melissa.....Now you have to see if he respects it....I think he did...But my dear don't you think he really thinks of you... you know since you left him he'd been called you nonstop.... Plus now he's sending flowers"
Melissa couldn't reply but hug her mom tightly.
"His life is so big compare to mine..... I'm used to see you, my two friends...no drama.... No ,Nothing his life including the bunch of drama and business agreements that even if you don't want to do something you have to because business is business"She said
"I know he was insisting you stay in his house if you discharged , he's kind .....I know but.. it's just"Melissa murmured.
"It's just what dear" Hellen asked and Melissa pull back from hug slowly and looked at her mother.
"I don't want to be hurted..... I felt red flag on him for the first time, I felt he's starting to be more happy with Sasha than with me....."
"Even if I try to put those feelings aside, he's still gonna do the same, he won't tell me and once I figured it out he will say I was protecting you... from what exactly? I still don't get it "Melissa said.
"From hurting you..... Melissa I don't think he's doing anything, He loves you "Hellen said
"Mom let's eat I'm starving " She said clearly pulled aside the feelings of trust and she focused on sharing moment with her mom.
On the fourth day, as Melissa was listlessly sketching in Apartment's living room, her phone rang, It was Marco.
"Signorina Melissa," his gruff voice was uncharacteristically gentle.
"He's not well, He's… he's not sleeping. He's called off almost all of his meetings scheduled for tomorrow He wants to see you tomorrow. Please. Will you see him?"Marco, the big shadow of Luca , who's all ways professional of not even blink of his seriousness but today he pleaded, for sake of his boss.
A part of her wanted to stay hardened, to let him feel the full weight of his choices.
But the larger part, the part that remembered his touch, his whispered "*mia regina*," the man beneath the heir, ached and her mother added weight of advice her meeting him.
She agreed to meet him, not at the penthouse, but at the small, hidden garden piazza near her old university—neutral ground, their past untouched by the present drama.
He was already there when she arrived, leaning against the ancient fountain, looking ravaged.
Shadows bruised the skin under his eyes, and his usual impeccable posture was slumped.
When he saw her, a wave of raw emotion crossed his face—relief, pain, love.
"Melissa," he breathed, taking a step but stopping himself, giving her space.
"Luca."
They stood in silence for a moment, the sound of the fountain the only conversation.
"Please don't do this to me" he began, his voice rough.
"It not the business—that is a viper's nest I am legally bound to. I was wrong to let it bleed into us. Wrong to think I could compartmentalize my life with you away from my duty to my name."
"Wrong to ever let you feel like an afterthought or a… a complication." He ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
"Sasha… she just as strategist as Cynthia, She using history, guilt, shared context as weapons..."Melissa added.
"Against who?..... Melissa please don't let those thoughts getting in to you"Luca said and took a step towards her but she stepped back.
"You are too blind to see it.... you know why ?...because you are focus on fixing the problem instead of finding the Cause of problem...that you don't even see she's the cause and becoming the problem."Melissa said, sighed, her arms wrapped around herself.
"I have drawn the line," he stated, his gaze finally meeting hers, holding it with fierce intensity.
"The Swiss deal will be handled by our lawyers and a trustee....I will not meet with her. not for books, not for anything, Bruno can rage all he wants." He took a cautious step closer but this time Melissa didn't step back, just stood still.
"With you.... If you'll still have me... If you can forgive the unforgivable stupidity of a man who was so busy guarding his castle, he didn't see the treasure within was slipping away."
Tears welled in his eyes for the first time Melissa saw him let out his tears , his tighten his teeth to hold back emotions.
This was the reckoning. Not with Sasha, but with each other.
"I don't need a castle, Luca," she whispered, a single tear tracing a path down her cheek, Luca welled teared eyes flickered to her.
"I just need to be your home..... And a home has no room for Chaos"
She added and then he closed the distance between them then, his hands coming up to cradle her face with a reverence that shattered her remaining defenses.
"No more Chaos," he vowed, his thumb brushing away her tear. "Only us. Only this."
His lips found hers, not in the fiery, desperate passion of their previous make-up, but in a slow, deep, aching kiss of reunion.
It was a kiss of apology, of promise, of a love tested and scarred but refusing to break.
She kissed him back, her fingers threading into his hair, pulling him closer, feeling the truth of his words in the tremor of his body against hers.
When they parted, foreheads resting together, the world felt recentered.
"I.....I won't be back to your house for now.... I mean my mom is already....."
"Discharged I know "His voice steady and the their laugh cracked in mix of profound forgiveness and joy.
"I remember the date doctor told me...So can I go say hi to her?"
"Yeah why not?"She said and wiped her eyes.
The Fact drama wasn't over—Sasha's father's situation still loomed.