A few weeks had passed since Vincenzo's cold indifference became the new normal. Vanessa had grown accustomed to the sterile, hollow silence between them, though it did nothing to ease the ache in her chest. His eyes, once warm with an intensity that made her feel both safe and desired, were now distant, like he was looking right through her. He barely spoke to her during meetings anymore, even when their eyes crossed in a room full of people. It was as if she had become invisible to him.
Brain had noticed it too, his worried glances growing more frequent. He had always been protective of her, but even he seemed at a loss as to why Vincenzo was treating her this way. Today, as he placed the food in front of her, his expression softened with concern.
"Vanessa, you need to eat. It's not just for you anymore," Brain urged gently, his voice tinged with frustration. "Vincenzo... you know he cares about you."
But as the plate of food sat untouched before her, the words felt hollow. Vincenzo's absence, both emotionally and physically, had taken root in her heart, and the small comfort of his presence was nowhere to be found. She stared at the food, but the sight of it made her stomach turn.
"I don't want to eat," she whispered, her voice breaking. The tears that had been threatening for days now finally spilled over. She clutched her hand to her chest, as if the physical pain could somehow lessen the ache inside.
Her breath came in shallow bursts as the reality of it hit her all over again: Vincenzo—her protector, her lover, the father of her child—was pulling away from her. His silence was suffocating. The more she tried to reach out, the more he recoiled, as if she were the very thing that repelled him.
"What did I do wrong?" she whispered, her voice barely audible through the raw ache in her throat. "Why is he hurting me this much?"
Her heart trembled in her chest, but the silence was louder than any words he had ever spoken to her. It was an unbearable weight, pressing down on her with the force of a thousand unanswered questions. She had given him everything—her trust, her body, her love—and in return, he had pulled away from her with the coldness of a man who no longer recognized the person beside him.
The confusion gnawed at her. She wasn't blind to the strain he was under; she had seen it in the way his hands shook when he thought no one was looking, the quiet desperation in his eyes when he thought she couldn't see. But none of it explained why he was turning away from her now, when she needed him the most.
His absence was a tangible thing, like a wall that had slowly risen between them. Was it because of the child? The thought that her pregnancy was somehow a burden to him crushed her. She had never imagined that the thing they had created together—something so pure, so beautiful—could become the reason for their unraveling.
"He's avoiding me, Brain," Vanessa whispered, her voice trembling. "Even now, even when I'm carrying his child. What have I done wrong?"
Brain's jaw tightened, but he said nothing. His eyes softened with sympathy, but there was no answer to give her. She didn't need his sympathy. She needed Vincenzo.
A tear slipped down her cheek, her body trembling with the weight of her emotions. She had fought so hard to keep her heart intact, but now it felt like every piece of her was shattering under the crushing force of his indifference. How had they gone from being so close, to this painful distance?
The child she carried was a part of him. How could he turn away from them both so easily?
As her sobs shook her body, her hand instinctively moved to her stomach, the life growing inside her, a constant reminder of the love they had once shared. She felt a flutter, a soft kick from the baby, and it was the only thing that made her feel connected to Vincenzo anymore. But even that felt like a cruel joke.
What if he never came back to her? What if this distance—this silence—was all they would ever have?
Her heart broke all over again as she tried to wipe away her tears. The child inside her was the only thing she had left to hold onto, the only reason she had to fight through the pain.
But in that moment, the pain of being abandoned by the one person she had trusted with everything—was almost too much to bear