Chapter 7 - The Song Through the Wall
Three months later, apartment 4B had a new door.
So did 4A.
Luca had offered to buy Elena a luxury apartment.
She refused.
He offered again.
She refused louder.
Eventually, they compromised.
He quietly purchased the Astoria building without telling her.
Elena discovered it twelve days later.
She stormed into 4A.
“You bought my building?”
Luca looked up from his laptop.
“Technically, a company bought it.”
“You own the company.”
“Technicalities matter.”
“You promised you wouldn’t interfere with my life.”
“I fixed the plumbing.”
“You bought forty-two apartments to fix plumbing?”
“The plumbing was terrible.”
She stared at him.
“You are impossible.”
“I’ve heard that.”
Then she noticed the papers beside him.
“What are those?”
“Renovation plans.”
“For what?”
“The basement.”
“Why?”
“A recording room.”
Elena stopped.
“What?”
“You said you wanted to record music again.”
She had told him months earlier.
Before Ryan.
Before she stopped believing her voice mattered.
“That was just something I used to dream about.”
Luca closed the laptop.
“Then dream again.”
Elena looked at him for several seconds.
“You can’t solve everything with money.”
“I know.”
“You can’t protect me from every bad thing.”
“I know.”
“And you don’t get to decide what I do.”
“I definitely know.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
Luca stood.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“I’m moving.”
Her smile vanished.
“Where?”
“4B.”
She blinked.
“That’s my apartment.”
“Yes.”
“Luca.”
He finally smiled.
“I wanted to see your face.”
“You’re horrible.”
“I’m staying in 4A.”
She punched his shoulder.
He caught her hand.
Neither moved.
Their relationship had changed slowly.
Dinner became breakfast.
Breakfast became weekends.
Weekends became Elena leaving a toothbrush in 4A and pretending it happened accidentally.
But Luca had never rushed her.
Ryan had taught Elena what control disguised as love looked like.
Luca refused to become another version of that.
So he waited.
Elena looked down at their joined hands.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Why did you really open my door that night?”
“You opened your door.”
“You know what I mean.”
Luca became quiet.
“For six months, I had one rule.”
“Don’t interfere.”
“Yes.”
“You broke it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at her.
“Because eleven o’clock came and you didn’t sing.”
Elena’s eyes softened.
“That’s it?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“I heard you tell him to leave.”
Luca’s thumb moved gently across her hand.
“And I realized that if I stayed behind that wall because protecting my identity mattered more than helping you, then I wasn’t the man I thought I was.”
Elena stepped closer.
“You scared me when I learned who you were.”
“I know.”
“You still scare me occasionally.”
“Fair.”
“But not because I think you’ll hurt me.”
Luca waited.
She smiled.
“Because I think I might actually love you.”
For perhaps the first time in his adult life, Luca Moretti had absolutely nothing to say.
Elena laughed.
“Speechless?”
“Temporarily.”
“That’s going in my calendar.”
He pulled her gently closer.
“I love you too.”
“No dramatic mafia speech?”
“I can arrange one.”
“No.”
“No expensive gift?”
“Already ordered.”
“Luca.”
“I’ll cancel it.”
“You’re lying.”
“Yes.”
She laughed again.
That night, Elena returned to 4B.
At exactly eleven, Luca turned off the lights in 4A.
The wall between them was still thin.
Her voice began.
Warm.
Imperfect.
Familiar.
Luca closed his eyes.
Then the singing suddenly stopped.
His eyes opened.
Three knocks sounded at his door.
He crossed the apartment.
Elena stood outside holding two almond croissants.
“You know,” she said, “there’s an easier way to listen now.”
Luca leaned against the doorway.
“Is there?”
“You could invite me inside.”
He stepped aside.
Elena entered.
She placed the croissants on the table.
Then she looked around.
“No hidden mafia meeting?”
“Not tonight.”
“No dangerous strangers?”
“No.”
“No secrets?”
Luca considered that.
“No secrets that matter.”
Elena smiled.
“Good.”
She started singing again as she walked toward the kitchen.
Luca followed.
Six months earlier, he had hidden in that apartment because he trusted nobody.
Now the traitor was gone.
His organization was secure.
Ryan was permanently out of Elena’s life.
And Luca no longer needed a wall between himself and the only voice that had ever made his world feel quiet.
At eleven every night, Elena still sang.
The difference was that Luca no longer listened from the other side.
He listened beside her.
May you like
And for the first time in years, neither of them needed to be afraid of what happened when the song ended.
THE END
