CHAPTER 129
KATYA POV
I'd been standing outside Nonna's door for… I wasn't even sure anymore. Thirty minutes? Maybe more.
Long enough for my legs to start aching and for the hallway lights to feel too bright. Nonna hadn't called me back in.
Not a word. Not a sound. Part of me told myself she just needed time. She'd asked for a moment, and I wanted to respect that.
But another part of me was… worried. The kind that twists low in your stomach and keeps twisting even when you try to breathe past it.
I kept glancing at the closed door, waiting for it to open on its own. It didn't.
Or at least hear my name being called but the longer I stood there, the heavier everything felt.
A few guards had walked past me over the last half hour. Some nodded in greeting, some completely ignored me.
Their boots echoing after them against the marble like a reminder that life kept moving somewhere else.
