Lisa's POV
The night after the shootout, I lay awake in the massive bed Noha had insisted I sleep in. The room was silent, but my mind wasn't. Every blink behind my eyelids replayed the flashes of gunfire. Blood. Screams. The scent of smoke still clung to my hair like a haunting perfume. I kept thinking, Was this really my life now?
I rolled over, my fingers brushing the empty side of the bed.
He wasn't here.
He hadn't been all night.
My heart ached.
I sat up, pulling my knees to my chest. My white nightgown clung to my skin with the thin layer of sweat that panic always brought. The window was cracked open. Cold night air slithered in, whispering doubts into my ears.
Noha hadn't spoken much after the fight. He had pulled me into his arms, kissed me like I was the only reason he was still breathing, then walked out of the room without saying a word.
I knew he was battling demons. But I was too. And mine were whispering things like:
He doesn't trust you.
He's hiding something.
You'll always be second… to her.
I stood up.
Enough of this silence.
If we were going to be together, really be together, then we had to stop pretending things were fine.
Noha's POV
I stood on the rooftop of the mansion, a bottle of whiskey dangling from my hand, eyes staring into the endless night.
My knuckles were raw. My lip still bled a little. I didn't care.
This city beneath me… I owned it. Controlled it. But I couldn't control the chaos inside me.
Lisa…
She had almost died.
Because of me.
Because she walked into my war.
I tried to stay away from her. Tried to bury my emotions in alcohol and blood and control. But she was the first warmth I'd felt since…
Her.
Since the night my first love bled out in my arms, whispering my name through cracked lips.
"Smile again, Noha," she had said. "Don't let the world steal it from you."
But I had. I let the world take everything.
Until Lisa.
She looked like her. Not just her face, but her soul. Kind. Soft. Loving. I hated how much it scared me.
I took another drink.
"Are you going to stay up here all night?" her voice pierced through the silence behind me.
I stiffened.
Turned.
She stood there barefoot, wrapped in my shirt, her hair messy from sleep, but her eyes—sharp. Sad. Determined.
"Lisa—"
"Don't lie to me," she cut me off gently but firmly, stepping closer. "Don't pretend like you're okay. Because I know you're not."
I looked away.
"I'm not good for you," I said. "You deserve someone who'll give you a peaceful life. Not a man who sleeps with a gun under his pillow and blood on his hands."
She came even closer, placing her hand on my chest. Her touch was light, but it burned me.
"You think I don't know that?" she whispered. "I'm not stupid, Noha. I know what this world is. I know who you are. But I still love you."
Love.
That word again.
I clenched my jaw. "Don't say that. Don't make me hope for something I'll only destroy."
Tears pooled in her eyes. "You think love makes you weak. But it's the only thing keeping you alive."
I looked at her.
She wasn't begging. She wasn't afraid.
She was fighting.
For me.
Lisa's POV
He looked so broken standing there. Not the dangerous mafia boss everyone feared—but a man. A man whose heart had been shredded by pain, betrayal, and loss.
"I need to know, Noha," I said softly. "Everything. Not half-truths. Not silence. I want to know about her. About your past. About the nightmares you never speak of. Because I can't help you if you keep locking me out."
His expression darkened.
"I can't talk about her," he said through gritted teeth. "Not with you."
"Because I look like her?"
Silence.
"You think you're in love with a ghost, Noha, but I'm real. I'm here. And I'm not leaving."
I stepped back, heart pounding. "If you don't trust me enough to let me in, then maybe I don't belong here."
That got him.
His hand shot out and gripped my wrist tightly, not hard enough to hurt, but firm.
"Don't say that," he growled. "Don't you dare leave."
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my cheeks. "Then stop pushing me away!"
Noha's POV
Her tears… they killed me.
Because I'd made the one person I wanted to protect the most cry.
She was right.
I had been punishing her for the past. For things that had nothing to do with her.
I had been trying to bury feelings that had already taken root.
"You want the truth?" I whispered hoarsely. "Fine."
I let go of her wrist and stepped back, the words choking me as they poured out.
"She was my fiancée. Her name was Elira. We were supposed to run away together, leave the mafia world behind. But the night I tried to leave... they killed her. Right in front of me."
Lisa's eyes widened.
"I blamed myself. I still do. I haven't smiled since that night. Because what's the point of smiling when the only person who made you feel alive is dead?"
She took a sharp breath.
"I see her in you," I admitted, voice cracking. "But you're not her. You're... you're something else entirely. And that terrifies me."
"Why?"
"Because if I lose you, too, I won't survive it."
Lisa's POV
I launched into his arms, wrapping myself around him, burying my face in his chest. "You're not going to lose me," I cried. "Not unless you push me away again."
He held me so tightly, like I was the only thing keeping him from falling apart.
"I don't deserve you," he murmured into my hair.
"You do," I said. "You deserve love, Noha. You deserve happiness. Let me be the one to give it to you."
And for the first time… I felt him shake.
Break.
Then he whispered the words I thought I'd never hear from him.
"I love you, Lisa."
Noha's POV
And I meant it.
For the first time in years, I allowed myself to feel it fully.
No pretending. No walls.
I loved her.
Not because she looked like Elira. But because she fought for me harder than anyone ever had.
Because she saw the darkness inside me… and still stayed.
And in that moment, with her arms wrapped around me, her tears mixing with mine—I smiled.
A broken, hesitant, unfamiliar smile.
But a real one.
And she saw it.
"You smiled," she whispered in awe.
I nodded slowly, my voice husky. "Because of you."