Chapter 61 – The Man Who Returned from the Dead

Chapter 61 – The Man Who Returned from the Dead
Silvia never imagined she would hear that name again.

Fercondiny.

For years, she had trained her mind not to think about him.
Not to speak about him.
Not to remember him.

Because remembering hurt.
And it hurt too much.

But now there was no escaping it.
Fercondiny was alive.

Alive.

The word still sounded absurd.

Silvia stared out the car window at the road, trying to control the storm raging inside her. Outside, the city lights blurred past. Inside, her entire past had returned to haunt her.

She still remembered the first time she saw him.

Fercondiny wasn’t just handsome.
Handsome was too weak a word.
He was the kind of man who could make a woman forget what she was saying mid-sentence.

Tall.
Confident.
Irritatingly charming.
And completely full of himself.

Silvia hated it immediately.
At least that’s what she tried to tell herself.

The truth?
She fell in love with him at the same speed.
And it had been a disaster.

Because Fercondiny was intense.
Everything about him was intense.
The looks.
The smiles.
The promises.
The jealousy.
The love.
Especially the love.

Fercondiny never did anything halfway.
Not even loving her.

Silvia closed her eyes.
The memory came instantly.

“Marry me.”

She almost dropped her glass of juice.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Fercondiny!”

“Is that a yes?”

“We’ve only been dating for six months!”

“So?”

“So you’re crazy!”

“I prefer to call it efficiency.”

Silvia had started laughing.
Hard.
Until she realized he was serious.
Dead serious.

Fercondiny took her hand, kissed her fingers, and smiled in that way that always destroyed any resistance she had left.

“I want to wake up next to you every day for the rest of my life.”

Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest.

“You’re impossible.”

“But you love me.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Very much.”

She ended up saying yes.
How could she not?

Back then, the world seemed perfect.
Simple.
Safe.

They had plans.
They had dreams.
They had a future.
Or at least they believed they did.

Silvia opened her eyes quickly.
The pain came rushing back.

Because that future never happened.

It all ended before it could even begin.

The plane.
The news.
The disappearance.
The searches.
The silence.
The months without answers.

She still remembered the feeling of despair — waiting for a call, a message, any sign.
But nothing ever came.

Eventually, everyone started saying the same thing:
Fercondiny was dead.

Little by little, Silvia began to believe it too.
Not because she wanted to, but because she needed to survive.
Because waiting was far worse.

“Are you okay?”

Romeu’s voice pulled her out of her memories.

Silvia blinked a few times.

“I’m fine.”

“Liar.”

“Are you driving or doing therapy?”

“Both.”

She rolled her eyes. Romeu gave her a half-smile, but it quickly faded.

“You look pale.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“I’m being serious.”

Silvia sighed. Of course he was. Romeu could be annoying, arrogant, and bossy — but he was never indifferent to the people he cared about.

“I’m just tired.”

“And thinking about him.”

Silvia stayed silent.
There was no point in lying. Romeu already knew. Everyone knew.

She still loved Fercondiny.
Maybe not the man he was today, but the man he used to be.
The man who once held her hand and promised her a future.
The man she had cried over for years.
The man she had buried without ever having a body to say goodbye to.

“I hate this,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“No. You don’t.”

Romeu quickly glanced away from the road to look at her.

“Then explain it to me.”

Silvia took a deep breath, searching for the right words.

“I spent years crying over him. Years.”

Romeu remained silent.

“I suffered. I couldn’t sleep. I fell into depression. I thought I would never love anyone again. And now…”

Her voice broke.

“Now he’s alive.”

Romeu tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

“I know.”

“And I should be happy about it. But I’m not.”

Romeu understood immediately.
This wasn’t a miracle.
It was a tragedy.

Fercondiny was alive.
But he wasn’t the same man anymore.

“Do you think he’s changed?” Romeu asked.

Silvia let out a bitter laugh.

“Do I think?”

Romeu didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.
They both knew the answer.

Fercondiny was no longer that young man in love.
Something had happened to him.
Something had transformed him.
Something had made him dangerous.

And Silvia was afraid to find out exactly what.

A short while later, they made a brief stop to wait for the rest of the team. Silvia got out of the car to get some air. She needed a few minutes. She needed to organize her thoughts. She needed to convince her own heart that this changed nothing.

Because it didn’t.
Fercondiny might be alive, but he was also involved in Mikaella’s kidnapping.
That should be enough.
It should be.

But it wasn’t.

She was leaning against a tree when she heard footsteps behind her.

“You still run away when you’re nervous.”

The whole world stopped.

That voice.
His voice.

Silvia froze. Her heart raced.

No. It couldn’t be.

Slowly, she turned around.

And there he was.

Fercondiny.
Alive.
Real.

Not a photograph.
Not a memory.
Not a dream.

He was standing right in front of her.
Older.
Harder.
More dangerous.

But still him.
The same eyes.
The same posture.
The same man who had once promised to love her forever.

Silvia felt tears burning in her eyes instantly.

“Fercondiny…”

His name came out as a whisper.

He watched her in silence.
For a second — just a second — she thought she saw the old him.

But then it vanished.
Like smoke.
Like a ghost.
Like a lie.

Fercondiny’s gaze hardened again.
Cold.
Distant.
Impenetrable.

“You look beautiful.”

Silvia felt her heart shatter.
Because those words should have made her happy.
But they didn’t.
Not like this.
Not now.

“Where have you been?”
The question escaped before she could stop it.

Fercondiny looked away.

“Far away.”

“I thought you were dead.”

His jaw tightened.

“I know.”

“I cried for you.”

Silence.

“I suffered for you.”

More silence.

“I buried you.”

Her voice broke.

And for the first time, a real emotion crossed his face.
Pain.
Pure pain.

But it disappeared quickly.
Too quickly.

“Silvia…”

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t say my name like that. Not after all these years. Not after everything.”

Fercondiny took a deep breath, as if this conversation was just as hard for him as it was for her.

But then his expression hardened again.
And Silvia knew.

She knew the man she had loved was still in there somewhere — buried under years of hatred, years of pain, and years of revenge.

“Why?” she asked. “Why did you come back?”

Fercondiny looked her straight in the eyes.
His answer felt like a knife to the heart.

“I came back for revenge, Silvia.”

Her heart stopped.

“No…”

“I came back to settle the score.”

“Fercondiny…”

“Not for love.”

Silvia felt the tears roll down her face.

Because this was the second time she was losing him.
And this time, it hurt even more.