[Alfio's Pov]
I stared at the door long after Salvo disappeared up the stairs, his voice still echoing in my head like a bad aftertaste.
"If I find you useless… then yes."
The words thudded against my ribs like a baseball bat made of ice. I didn't know what I expected—maybe a dry laugh, an eye-roll, that familiar annoyed glare he always shot me when I opened my mouth.
Not… that.
Not the straight-faced, razor-cut truth, delivered so effortlessly. Like it meant nothing.
I stood there for a full thirty seconds before my brain finally tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, "Hey, idiot. He said 6 p.m. Move."
Dragging my feet up to my room felt like climbing Everest but with none of the glory and all of the emotional frostbite. I shut the door behind me, locked it (just in case Aria decided to ghost through the walls again), and flopped onto the bed with the grace of a dying walrus.
The ceiling stared down at me. I stared back.
"...Useless, huh?" I whispered.
