The Black Swan's Final Revenge Pirouette: The 99th Game Was Mine All Along by Kylie Homme

Chapter 16

hapter 16

Finally, Ariana set down her cutlery with deliberate precision and picked up her phone. She typed quickly and turned the screen toward him

“Why do you keep staring at me like that?”

Caught in his scrutiny, Luigi seemed to return from somewhere distant. Every gesture she made–the particular way she tilted her head, how she held her fork, even how she dabbed her napkin at the corner of her mouth beneath the mask–intensified his growing certainty.

“You remind me of someone I lost,” he said, his voice barely audible

Rather than typing, she gestured to a passing server for paper. When it arrived, she scrawled a single word

Who?”

Luigi’s fingers tightened around his water glass until his knuckles went white. His voice, when it finally came, held a rawness she’d never heard before.

“My wife.”

Something in his expression–a naked vulnerability utterly foreign to the man she had known–seemed to break open a floodgate. Without prompting, words began pouring out of him.

“I never told her I loved her,” he confessed, eyes fixed on the space just past her shoulder. “Not once, not properly. I had this… this stupid idea that saying it would give her power over me. Now I’d give everything I own just to say it to her once.”

Ariana remained perfectly still, pen hovering over paper, as he continued speaking to her–or perhaps to the ghost he saw superimposed over her presence.

“She died thinking I hated her. Because of my pride and other people’s manipulation, I made choices that “his voice cracked, “that led directly to her death. There was a fire that should never have happened. That I helped create.”

His hands trembled slightly as he reached for his water.

“Every night, I have the same nightmare. I’m always able to reach her in the flames, but the moment I think we’re safe, she deliberately pulls away and walks back into the fire. She chooses death over me, and

I can’t blame her.”

He laughed bitterly. “I’ve become the person I used to mock–desperate enough to consult psychics,

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The Black Sawan’s Linal Revenge Pinuell

The

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Chapter 16:

me the same thing: her spirit refuses

who had built his reputation on cold calculation covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking with silent,

might have been moved by this display

She might have offered comfort,

she knew exactly what he had conveniently omitted from his narrative–the deliberate cruelty, the ninety–eight humiliations, the calculated revenge for a crime she

The woman sitting across from him now felt nothing beyond mild irritation at being trapped in this unexpected confession.

breakdown. He quickly wiped his eyes, embarrassment replacing vulnerability as the mask of the businessman slid back into place.

“That was completely inappropriate.

they exited the restaurant into the hotel’s circular driveway, disaster struck

swerved wildly toward the valet stand where they stood, its high beams momentarily

them both.

out!” Luigi

a split–second decision, he shoved her forcefully sideways, the momentum sending her sprawling across the pavement as the vehicle struck him

on impact, skidding across the concrete with a hollow clatter.

thrown several feet by the impact, his body crumpling against a decorative planter.

running valets, the sharp wail

the chaos, Luigi’s focus remained singular. Despite the blood seeping through his shirt, his

the name escaping like

corridor thirty minutes later, Luigi refused to release her hand even as they

The thi

to his

disappear,” he kept murmuring his grip painfully tight despite his weakening state. “Please. If this is another dream, F’ll let them hit me again if it means I get to

the impossibile resurrection of the woman he had mourned outweighed his multiple fractures. and internal bleeding. His fingers communicated what drugs and shock prevented him from articulating–abject terror that if he let

nurse insisted. “We need to get

his eyes locked on Ariana’s face with desperate intensity.

and pre–surgical sedation. As the medications

closed between them. This complication was the last thing she needed–her carefully constructed new life now threatened by an unwanted resurrection.

hotel and book a flight back to London. Her obligations to the company were secondary to maintaining the freedom she had sacrificed so much to

departed for a night tour of Boston’s historic waterfront, Ariana

she had no desire to revisit

to their hotel, eager for the solitude of her room and a long, hot shower to wash away

however, seemed determined to stress–test her resolve.

a small group of men in

before she could retreat, his voice carried across the short distance:

She fumbled frantically in her bag, locating and securing her

Chapter 16

and approached her directly, studying her with

observed, gesturing to her casual attire of jeans

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