Then my phone chimed.
You admired this label. I selected two pieces that would complement you.
Another chime.
When you're released, I'll have their people come to the compound. Buy out the entire collection if it pleases you.
And another.
Massima is a surgeon. Her hands are essential to her standing in the Family's operations. That's why I reacted as I did. Don't hold anger.
I stared at the screen, message after message materializing like ghosts. Tears blurred my vision until the words swam together, meaningless.
Finally, something inside me cracked.
"You can speak to her." My voice emerged raw, scraped hollow. "But not to me? We're sitting three feet apart, and you're still hiding behind a screen?"
I lifted my head, letting him see the tears cutting tracks down my cheeks. Letting him see exactly what his silence had cost.
"Is this deliberate? Is this how you punish me—with this wall of nothing?"
His face remained as still as carved marble. Those dark Volpe eyes, so legendary in their coldness, watched me without a tremor of emotion.
The silence stretched between us like a blade.
Then his head bowed, and his thumbs moved across the screen once more.
I'm sorry. I have selective mutism.