Chapter 170

Chapter 170
The world around me had transformed into noise and movement. Everything was happening too fast, too loud, too dangerous. My hands trembled as Nancy and I desperately tried to untie the knots that bound Rafael to that chair. The rope seemed stronger with each pull, as if fate itself were trying to delay our escape.

"Calm down… calm down…" I repeated, more to myself than to him.

Rafael cried silently, his eyes wide and frightened, looking at everything as if trying to understand a nightmare that never ends. Nancy was different. There were no jokes, no inappropriate comments. Just focus. An almost ferocious urgency.

Behind us, chaos.

Vincenzo and his bodyguard fought as if each second were their last. Punches, bodies colliding, screams, the dry sound of bones against flesh. I couldn't look for long without feeling panic rising, but something inside me needed to be vigilant. I needed to know where Vincenzo was. Always.

I heard a loud impact and raised my head in time to see Vincenzo get up after taking down one of Oliver's henchmen. The man fell unconscious to the ground, but there was no relief. Because Oliver was also getting up.

His nose was bleeding, his face bruised, but his gaze… his gaze was too alive. Calculating. Ready.

The two stood face to face for a second that seemed eternal.

My heart almost leaped out of my chest when Vincenzo lunged forward.

He went all out. Pure rage. Accumulated pain. Desperate love. But Oliver was prepared. He dodged with almost cruel precision, using Vincenzo's own momentum against him. Each missed blow seemed to cost more strength. Each counterattack from Oliver was precise, cold, technical.

"No!" I whispered, feeling the fear spread.

One wrong move.

Vincenzo fell to the ground hard.

“It was obvious I’d be ready for you,” Oliver said, breathless, with a crooked smile. “I’ve waited for this my whole life.”

Vincenzo stood up again. There was something almost animalistic about him now. A raw, untamed fury. He attacked again, but Oliver parried, twisted his body, and, in a movement too quick, grabbed him by the neck.

My heart stopped.

Vincenzo was trapped in a brutal hold. Oliver’s arms closed around his neck like a trap. Vincenzo tried to fight back, tried to break free, but the harder he tried, the tighter the grip became.

I saw his face change. I saw him gasp for air. I saw his contained despair.

“Vincenzo…” I murmured, feeling my legs go weak.

“Rachel!” Nancy shouted behind me. “I did it!”

The rope gave way.

Rafael was free.

He threw himself into Nancy’s arms, his small body trembling. The look he gave her… fear and purity mixed together. Something that broke my heart in two.

But I couldn't celebrate.

Because Vincenzo was dying right there, before my eyes.

The sight of him suffocating extinguished any rational thought. There was no plan. There was no fear. There was only a violent and clear certainty: I wasn't going to watch that man die.

I let go of everything and ran.

I heard someone shout my name, but I didn't stop. My body hurled itself against Oliver with all the strength I had. My weight wasn't enough to knock him down, but it was enough to unbalance him. The grip loosened.

Vincenzo gasped for air with a hoarse, desperate sound.

Oliver pushed me hard, but I clung to him as best I could. We fell partially, stumbling. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

That's when I saw it.

A pen. Stuck in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

My body acted before my mind.

I gripped the pen tightly, feeling the cold metal against my fingers, and without thinking—without hesitation—I struck Oliver in the chest with all my might.

His scream was loud. Raw. Surprised.

He let go of Vincenzo immediately.

Time seemed to slow down.

Oliver staggered backward, his hand going to his chest. Vincenzo fell to his knees, gasping for air as if coming back to life. I stood there, still with the pen in my hand, my arm aching, my heart racing.

And, strangely… my mind was clear.

Focused, in the midst of that chaos.

The sound that came from Vincenzo's chest when he gasped was almost animalistic, as if it were his first breath. I heard it before I could even look at him. A desperate, urgent, real sound. My heart pounded so hard it hurt.

Oliver looked at his chest, at the blood staining his expensive suit, and then slowly raised his face. His gaze met mine.

And something there… changed.

He lunged at me with a raw, uncontrolled fury. I didn't have time to react. In a second, he gripped my arm tightly, the very one in which I was still gripping the pen. His fingers were firm, hot, trembling with rage and pain.

"You…" he began, but the word died halfway through.

He stared at me so deeply it seemed like he was trying to pierce my skin. And then I saw. Not just the anger. Not just the hatred. I saw the pain. I saw the hom

Broken behind the monster. I saw something almost unbearable to recognize.

His eyes began to fill with tears.

And for a terrible second, I had the feeling that he wasn't seeing me. That through me… he saw another person. His wife. The woman he lost. The life that was ripped from him.

My chest tightened.

"Oliver…" I began, not knowing what I was going to say.

But there was no time.

His body was violently ripped away from me, breaking that strange and painful connection like glass shattering in the air.

Vincenzo.

He advanced like a hurricane.

The punch came hard, direct, brutal. The impact made Oliver spit blood, his body stagger. The sound echoed through the warehouse and everything seemed to slow down.

Oliver tried to react, but he no longer had the strength. Vincenzo grabbed him by the neck and began to lift him off the ground with absurd, almost superhuman strength. Oliver hung suspended, his feet searching for support in the void.

The image was terrifying.

Vincenzo was like an ancient tree, solid, unshakeable. And Oliver… hung from him, fragile, broken.

Oliver tried to break free, punched Vincenzo in the face once, twice. It was no use. Vincenzo didn't even move. His gaze was empty of anything but fury.

"—Vincenzo…" I murmured, feeling the panic rising.

Oliver's eyes began to lose focus. His body trembled. Then, a heavy tear ran down his face, mingling with the blood.

And in that instant, all the anger seemed to drain away.

"—Come on…" he whispered, his voice almost inaudible. "—Let me see them… one more time."

It was a request. Not a challenge. A weary request. Suffering.

To die.

My heart broke.

Vincenzo tightened his grip even more for a second. I saw it. I saw the exact moment he could end it all. With Oliver. With that story. With that pain.

And then…

— Dad?

The voice was small. Timid. Insecure.

Rafael.

Nancy was there, holding the boy's hand. Rafael's eyes were fixed on Vincenzo, full of fear… and hope.

Vincenzo froze.

The whole world seemed to stop.

He slowly turned his face and looked at the boy. The grip on Oliver loosened almost imperceptibly. The expression of infinite fury began to dissolve, like something melting under the sun.

— Dad? — Rafael repeated, his voice trembling.

I saw something born in Vincenzo's eyes at that instant. Something that had never been there before. Something bigger than revenge. Bigger than hatred.

Responsibility. Love. Future.

Vincenzo turned his gaze to Oliver.

Oliver stared back at him now with a blank, resigned look. Like someone who had already accepted the end.

Time seemed to stretch.

And then, as if decreeing the end of that madness, Vincenzo opened his hand.

Oliver fell to the ground with a dry thud, unconscious.

Silence.

The entire warehouse seemed to sigh together.

I felt my legs give way.