CHAPTER 260
KATYA POV
The doors to the dining hall opened and I stopped. The room was large—larger than I expected—even after everything I'd already seen in the house.
A long table stretched through the center, polished dark wood gleaming beneath the chandelier above it. Twenty seats lined its sides, high-backed and imposing.
Only three were not occupied. The space felt too open. Too exposed. Voices overlapped softly—low conversation, the clink of cutlery, the subtle movement of people who belonged here.
My pulse stuttered, my body reacting before my mind could reason with it. And then I noticed the head of the table.
In Romeo's place, the head was always empty. Untouched. A space that commanded silence even in absence.
Here, it wasn't. Nonna sat there, straight-backed and composed, hands resting lightly on the table.
The seat to her right was empty. So was the one to her left. The symmetry felt intentional, like a statement I didn't yet understand.
