ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 194: Permission
Chapter 194
ROMEO POV
Steam still clung to the mirrors when I stepped out of the shower. I reached for a towel and dried off slowly. No wasted movement. No room for distraction.
Night pressed against the windows beyond the bedroom, the estate swallowed in darkness. It was late by normal standards.
For me, it was just beginning.
I crossed the room and entered the walk-in closet, the motion lights flicking on one by one as I moved deeper inside.
Rows of suits greeted me as I reached automatically for the suit I’d left hanging apart from the rest.
Black. Tailored. Familiar.
Tonight required it.
Meetings at night were nothing unusual. Most of my work happened when the world was quieter, when people were tired enough to make mistakes—or desperate enough to tell the truth.
I shrugged into the jacket, adjusting the cuffs, checking the fit out of habit rather than necessity.
Everything was exactly where it should be. And still, my hand paused at the buttons, remembering how she had worn my cloths.
No one dared to but nonna being nonna had dressed her in it without my consent but despite that, I didn’t show anger at the sight of her.
I tightened my jaw and finished buttoning the suit. I didn’t dwell on it. I shouldn’t, dwelling led to questions. Questions led to cracks.
And cracks... had consequences. I checked my watch. Time to leave.
As I turned toward the door, I caught my reflection in the mirror, my mask perfect. The man everyone expected to see.
I opened the door and stopped on my tracks, seeing Adelasia standing at my doorway.
She was dressed in casual clothes—soft fabric, loose sleeves, her hair pulled back in a way that wasn’t her usual style.
It had been a long time I had seen her, longer than I cared to count. Her eyes lifted to meet mine, steady but guarded, the way they’d been since that incident.
Since the moment I’d drawn a line between family and foolishness. My gaze dropped to her left hand that rested at her side.
It was no longer flesh and bone as it once was, but metal. An iron replacement where her fingers should have been, jointed and precise, catching the low light from the corridor.
Functional. Cold. Unforgiving. Just like the lesson it represented.
I hadn’t seen it up close before, not that I cared to check on her. She noticed where I was looking and flexed the metal fingers once, deliberately.
"Don," she said calmly. I lifted my eyes back to her face. She looked thinner. Harder around the edges.
Despite Adelasia and I sharing blood, we had never shared anything else.
Not warmth.Not loyalty. Not understanding. She was my only cousin, and somehow that had always made her unbearable.
Spoiled. Loud. Reckless. Raised to believe the Salvatore name was a shield she could hide behind while doing whatever pleased her.
She spoke too much, laughed too loudly, touched things that didn’t belong to her. She had a talent for getting under my skin without even trying.
For years, I hadn’t cared. She was noise. An irritation easily ignored.
Until she wasn’t. Until the day Katya disappeared.
My jaw tightened almost imperceptibly as the memory surfaced—not the panic, not the chaos that followed, but the clarity.
The way everything had snapped into focus the moment I learned why, who and how that happened.
Adelasia.
She hadn’t meant for it to happen. That was the problem. Meaning didn’t matter. Consequences did.
Family didn’t exempt you from them.
I’d taught her that. Not in anger. Not in rage. Rage was messy. Emotional. Inefficient.
I’d taught her the way I taught everyone else, by making the lesson unforgettable.
Each missing piece had marked a day.
Each day had been a reminder. A calendar she could never ignore.
My eyes flicked again to the metal hand at her side. Clean and Expensive. A solution, not an apology.
She’d adapted, I’d give her that. But she’d also disappeared from my path ever since.
Avoided me like an illness, like proximity itself might cost her something else.
Until tonight.
"What do you need" I stepped fully into the hallway, closing the door behind me with "You didn’t come here for conversation."
Her lips pressed together. For a moment, the spoiled girl I remembered flickered beneath the surface—then vanished.
"No," she said. That earned her my full attention. I studied her in silence for a beat longer, then gave her what she’d earned.
"Speak."
The word fell flat, Adelasia straightened slightly, like she was bracing herself. "I’m leaving," she said. "Tonight. I’m traveling back to Italy."
The words landed and meant nothing to me.
Italy. Home country. Distance. I didn’t react. Why would I? Her location had never been my concern.
Her existence barely registered unless it crossed my path and caused damage.
So why was she standing here? She never came here for something so useless like this. My silence stretched as She exhaled through her nose, her gaze flicking briefly to the floor before returning to mine.
"I’m not here to inform you," she added carefully. "I’m here to ask."
"To ask what," I said evenly.
"Your permission," she replied. "As the Don."
I watched her closely then. The set of her shoulders. The way her metal fingers curled once at her side, subtle but telling.
She wasn’t afraid—not in the way she used to be. This was different. Something was going on around her.
"You don’t need permission to board a plane," I said. "So don’t insult me by wasting my time"
Her jaw tightened. "Leaving without your approval would be... unwise."
At least she’d learned something.
I stepped closer, close enough that she had to tilt her head slightly to keep eye contact. "Why now?" I asked. "You’ve avoided me for months. What changed tonight?"
Her lips parted, then pressed together again.
"Because I’m not coming back," she said quietly and I held her gaze another second, then stepped back, already done with the conversation.
"Then go." I said. "And don’t come back unless you’re summoned."
She nodded once, turning to leave and I checked my watch again.
Time to go.
Some meetings mattered more than family ever would.
††
Well well, what’s in y’all thoughts
