[BL] The Mafia Boss Wants My Body

Chapter 239: Chapter 239: The End of Us Birthday Without You

The fact that she sounded so calm could only mean one thing.

Adrian was safe.

Either he was hiding at Maya’s place to keep his distance from Matteo...

Or Maya knew exactly where her brother was.

Relieved that Adrian wasn’t wandering the streets alone or in danger, Matteo finally checked out of the hotel.

His security detail packed up their luggage and loaded it into the convoy before heading back to the estate.

By the time the convoy pulled through the estate gates, it was already late into the night.

The mansion was dark and eerily quiet.

Matteo walked into their shared master bedroom, but the bed was cold.

Adrian wasn’t home.

He sat down on the edge of the mattress, his phone clutched tightly in his hand, silently waiting for the call he prayed would finally come.

But the call never came.

Instead...

The clock ticked past midnight, marking the start of a new day.

At exactly 12:00 a.m., the quiet room was broken by the sharp chime of a text notification.

Matteo immediately reached for his phone.

He hadn’t slept.

All he had done for hours was smoke, drink, and wait.

His pulse quickened as Adrian’s name flashed across the screen.

With trembling fingers, he unlocked the phone.

But as his eyes scanned the long, beautifully written message, the relief flooding his chest slowly withered into absolute heartbreak.

From: Adrian

Happy birthday, baby.

I wanted to be the very first person to wish you a beautiful birthday, just like we promised each other. I hope this new year of your life brings you the peace you’ve been searching for, the happiness you deserve, and the kind of love that never leaves you questioning your place in someone’s heart.

I’m sorry, Matteo.

I don’t think those two words will ever be enough for everything I’ve done to you, but they’re all I have left.

I’m deeply sorry for leaving you standing at that entrance on Friday, and for staying away for the past two days without coming back to you.

I’m sorry for making you wait for me. I’m sorry for every time I put everyone else’s feelings before yours while expecting you to quietly understand mine. I know how much your pride meant to you, and yet you set it aside again and again just to love me.

I know how much I hurt you. I know how much my silence must have hurt even more.

Looking back at everything, I realize that maybe you’ve always deserved better than what I gave you, someone who wouldn’t keep dragging you back into a life that ended years ago.

Someone who wouldn’t make you compete with memories.

Someone who would choose you first every single time, and someone who wouldn’t make you question your place in their heart.

Instead, you chose to love someone like me.

You loved me in a way no one ever has.

Thank you... for everything. Thank you for loving me when I had forgotten how to love myself.

Thank you for every time you protected me when I couldn’t protect myself.

Thank you for protecting me, for shielding me from the world, for standing between me and every storm that tried to reach me.

Thank you for every sacrifice you made without asking for anything in return.

Thank you for every smile you brought back to my life, for every laugh, every embrace, every quiet moment that made me believe happiness was still possible. You truly are a good man, Matteo.

A beautiful, extraordinary man with a heart so gentle that only I was lucky enough to see it. I will carry the warmth of your love with me for the rest of my life.

You gave me happiness when I believed I didn’t deserve one.

You gave me laughter after years of grief.

You taught me that it was possible to love again.

And somehow...

You became the greatest love of my life.

I’ll carry that love with me for the rest of my life.

But I won’t be coming back.

Please...

Don’t look for me.

Don’t send your men after me.

Don’t turn the city upside down trying to find me.

You’ve spent so long carrying my broken pieces that somewhere along the way, I started breaking you too.

You gave me everything you had, yet all I ever seemed to do was hurt you in return. I think we’ve finally reached a point where loving each other is only breaking us apart, and I can’t bear to watch the man I love slowly lose himself because of me.

So... Please let me go.

Before everything fell apart, I had already asked Maya to arrange a birthday celebration for you tonight. I know you probably won’t go, not because you don’t appreciate the effort, but because I know you’ll be hurting too much to stand in front of everyone. Even so, I hope you’ll take care of yourself today. It’s your birthday, and despite everything, I still want this day to be kind to you.

A final gift will be delivered to the estate later this morning. It’s the very thing that brought us together, and somehow, it’s only fitting that it becomes the thing that brings our story to an end.

Take care of yourself today.

Please, if not for yourself...

Then for me.

I don’t regret loving you, Matteo.

If I had another lifetime, I’d still choose to fall in love with you.

I’d just pray that, somehow...

I’d learn how to love you without hurting you.

Happy Birthday, Teo.

From your only spoiled brat.

Goodbye.

Oh... and before I go, promise me something.

Learn how to cook. Go to rehab. It’s important.

Take better care of your health, even if I’m no longer there to nag you about it.

And... don’t skip your meals.

Until we meet again.

Your spoiled brat.

Matteo stared at the glowing screen, the words slowly blurring before his eyes as a suffocating silence settled over the empty bedroom. The finality of the message hollowed him out, leaving him sitting alone on his birthday, crushed by the realization that he had truly lost the man he loved.

With trembling hands, Matteo frantically hit the redial button. He pressed the phone to his ear, his chest tightening as he prayed to hear it ring.

Instead...

"The number you are trying to reach is currently switched off."

The cold, mechanical voice echoed through the speaker before the line went dead.

The phone slipped from Matteo’s trembling hand onto the mattress.

The last of his strength deserted him.

A raw, agonizing cry tore from his throat as he screamed into the quiet room.

"Why?! How can you say I deserve someone better when I’ve spent all this time trying to show you that you are everything I’ve ever wanted? I never wanted anyone else, Adrian. I only wanted you."

The tears he had fought so hard to hold back finally spilled over, hot and bitter, trailing down his face. He collapsed forward, burying his face in his hands as his broad frame shook with violent, broken sobs.

"Why was walking away the first thing that came to your mind?" Matteo choked out, his voice cracking with a vulnerability he had never allowed anyone to see.

"I accepted every part of you, Adrian. Your stubbornness, your temper, your mistakes, your sharp tongue, the way you always put everyone else before me... I accepted all of it because I loved you. But when it was my turn... You didn’t even wait to know the truth. You saw something, believed the worst of me, and walked away."

He gripped his hair, the pain in his chest turning into a raging, suffocating fire.

"You’ve hurt me so many times," he whispered fiercely into the darkness, his heart breaking all over again. "You’ve treated me worse than you realize. You let people call me names for loving you... for being soft with you. And through it all, I still loved you. I never once thought about leaving you. I never stopped choosing you. So why? Why was the first time I hurt you enough for you to throw us away?"

He looked at the empty pillow beside him, the silence of the mansion pressing heavily against his ears. Adrian’s words burned into his memory, each one twisting like a knife.

"You always told me you loved me... Is this how little that love really was? Is this the limit of the love you claimed to have for me?"

Matteo threw his head back, a desperate, broken roar ripping through his chest as he screamed his partner’s name into the rafters. "Adrian! Adrian, why would you ever think of leaving me?!"

He clenched his fists in the sheets, the crushing weight of betrayal sinking into his bones. "I gave you everything. My attention, my protection, my pride, my entire fucking heart... and you just chose to leave me like I meant absolutely nothing to you."

He let out a sharp, breathless laugh that sounded dangerously close to a sob, looking down at the clock as the minutes ticked past midnight.

"You choose to leave me on my birthday."

Matteo leaned back against the headboard, staring blankly at the ceiling as the tears continued to stream silently down his face. His expression hardened into a mask of pure heartbreak.

"You are selfish till the very end, Adrian," he whispered into the quiet night...