ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 174: Crazy

Chapter 174

ROMEO POV

Katya’s eyes lifted slowly. They found Nonna first. Recognition but not fully. It was like her gaze slid over her, unfocused, glazed, as if Nonna were a ghost standing where a wall should be.

Then her eyes dropped. Back to the floor. Back to the maid. Back to what she was on.

Something in Katya seemed to snap back as she scrambled backward with a sharp, broken gasp, the shard slipping on floor as she lets it go.

Her movements were frantic, uncoordinated—like an animal realizing too late it had wandered into fire.

She hit the wall hard, curling into it, knees dragging to her chest. Her back pressed flat against the cold marble like she was trying to disappear into it.

Her eyes never left the girl on the floor. The maid was trembling now. Alive but barely.

That realization seemed to hit Katya all at once. Her hands came up in front of her face, shaking violently, smeared with red she didn’t seem to recognize as real.

She stared at them like they belonged to someone else. Marina screamed.

A sharp, piercing sound that sliced through the hallway like shattered glass. "What—what is that?" she shrieked, clutching my arm so hard her nails bit through fabric.

"What did she do?" Katya flinched at the sound.

Her head snapped up, wild eyes finally focusing—landing on Marina first. The silk robe.

The horror twisted into disgust. Then her gaze slid, slow and trembling, to me.

And she froze. Completely.

It was like someone had poured ice straight down her spine. Her shoulders locked. Her breath stuttered and stalled halfway out of her lungs.

"Ro..." The word barely formed. It came out fractured, her teeth chattering around it.

Her eyes darted again to the maid, floor, blood, then back to me. Over and over, like she was trying to piece together a picture that refused to make sense.

"I—I—" She swallowed hard. "I didn’t— I wasn’t—" Her voice collapsed in on itself.

Nonna’s chair rolled forward an inch, slow and careful. "Katya," she said softly, firmly. "Look at me, tesoro. Breathe."

Katya didn’t. Her hands pressed flat against the wall like she needed something solid to prove she was still real.

Her chest hitched, sharp, shallow pulls of air that never seemed enough. "I didn’t mean to," she whispered, the words spilling out now, panicked.

"She—she grabbed me and I— I just—" Her eyes dropped to the maid again and she shook her head violently. "I didn’t want— I swear— I didn’t—"

She slid down the wall an inch, fingers digging into the marble, eyes glassy with shock. "I—I didn’t..i didn’t..what...no...no" she was panicking so hard.

The maid let out a weak sound. A whimper. Katya jolted at it, flinching, she dragged herself farther away from the body.

Before I could blink Nonna wheeled herself forward, she didn’t look at the blood on the floor. Didn’t look at the maid. Her entire focus was on Katya.

"Nonna—" I moved instantly.

Instinct overrode thought. Fear spiked sharp and fast in my chest as I stepped towards her. There was broken porcelain everywhere.

Jagged edges catching the light. One wrong movement and....Katya was unstable. Shattered. I’d just seen what she was capable of when her mind snapped.

I couldn’t risk it. "She’s not—" I started, but my nonna eyes glared down at me....sharp, wild, and burning with something close to fury.

"She’s not what?" Nonna snapped, her voice cutting through the hallway like a blade. Her eyes never left Katya, filled with fear, pain and worries.

"She’s not what, Romeo?" Nonna repeated, her grip tightening on the armrest as she rolled closer. "A threat? An enemy? Is that what you’re thinking?"

I clenched my jaw. Wasn’t it obvious? Hadn’t she just seen it?

This girl—this fragile, shaking thing pressed against my wall—had just snapped hard enough to almost kill someone.

I had seen men like that. I had been that once. When the mind breaks, it doesn’t ask permission before it destroys.

Didn’t Nonna understand that?

"Nonna," I said carefully, stepping in front of her chair just enough to block the path, "she’s not stable right now. Look at her. There’s glass everywhere. She could—"

"Hurt me?" Nonna cut in sharply. Her laugh was short, broken. "You think I don’t know danger, bambino?"

Her eyes flicked, finally, to the blood on the floor. To the trembling maid. Then back to Katya—curled in on herself, whispering nonsense under her breath, rocking slightly like she was trying to soothe something inside her chest that wouldn’t stop screaming.

Nonna’s voice dropped. "Move."

Katya didn’t seem to hear any of it. Her lips were moving nonstop now. Fragments. Broken words tumbling over each other.

"I didn’t... didn’t... too loud... hands... couldn’t breathe... I said stop... I said stop..."

Her eyes were empty, unfocused, tears spilling without sound. She rocked harder, fingers digging into her arms like she was trying to hold herself together.

Nonna reached out. My muscles went rigid. Every instinct screamed at me to intervene. To pull her back. To put distance between them.

Her fingers brushed Katya’s cheek—light, trembling, reverent. Like she was touching something fragile already cracked.

Katya flinched violently at first, Nonna leaned closer, her voice low, grounding. "Tesoro," she whispered. "You’re here. You’re safe. No one is touching you."

Katya’s breath stuttered.

Her eyes searched Nonna’s face like she was trying to remember what a face was supposed to mean.

"I... I...I didn’t want to..."

"I know," Nonna said instantly, "I know."

"Can’t you all see this?" Marina seems to have found her voice as she shrieked, stepping forward.

"She’s crazy. Completely unhinged. She nearly killed someone—"

Katya jerked violently.

The sound hit her like a physical blow. Her shoulders slammed back against the wall, her breath tearing out of her in a broken sob.

Her hands flew up instinctively—defensive, blind, panicked. Nonna’s hand was still inches from Katya’s cheek.

Katya’s arm lashed out.

Not violent. Pure reflex. Her palm struck Nonna’s hand hard, knocking it away with a sharp smack that echoed through the hallway.

Everything stopped. My blood went cold.

"Nonna!" I barked, moving instantly, grabbing the handles of her chair, pulling her back a fraction too roughly. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Katya froze the second contact registered.

Her eyes dropped to Nonna’s hand like she’d just realized what she’d done. Her face drained of what little color it had left.

†††

Gina is totally forgot lol, no one called a medic? How cruel.