Chapter 4
“This man is dangerous. His business, the violence, everything around him. Are you certain?”
“Yes. More certain than I ever was about Liam.”
Amber struck the table with both hands, causing the dishes to move.
“Until he becomes tired of you. Men like that become tired, Luna. He’ll replace you with someone younger and prettier.”
“At least Liam is your age and shares your lack of character.”
The restraint I had tried to maintain disappeared.
Amber shouted back.
I stood so quickly that the chair nearly fell.
“You always had everything. You were the favorite and the spoiled child who received whatever she wanted. It still was not enough. You needed to take what belonged to me simply to prove you could.”
My voice became steadier.
“You got Liam. Congratulations. You have a weak man who will never love you as much as he loves his mother’s approval. I hope you are both very happy.”
I left before anyone responded, collected my purse from the living-room sofa, and walked out.
Nico’s house was as I had expected: large, modern, and minimalist in a way that announced wealth, although several personal details prevented it from feeling like only a property.
Liam arrived there without warning.
Rocco, the security guard at the entrance, attempted to stop him, but Nico indicated that he could enter.
“Dad.”
Liam entered the room with his face red from anger.
“We need to talk.”
Nico sat in a leather chair with a glass of whiskey. He barely looked up.
“Then talk.”
“Are you seriously dating Luna?”
“I am.”
“This is disgusting. She was mine.”
Nico raised his eyes, and the atmosphere in the room seemed to cool.
“You lost her when you chose to cheat. Your decision. Your consequence.”
“But you’re my father. There are rules. There’s a code.”
Nico stood slowly and placed the whiskey on a table with deliberate care.
“You cheated on a woman you dated for 3 years with her sister, in her bed. You have no authority to speak to me about codes.”
“I made a mistake.”
“And I made a choice.”
Nico approached him.
“Luna. End of discussion.”
“She’s using you to get revenge on me.”
Liam moved backward without appearing to realize it.
Nico stopped close enough to force his son to lift his chin.
“Be careful, Liam. Be very careful about what you say next.”
Liam opened his mouth, closed it, then spoke in a desperate rush.
“You’ll regret this. Mom will never accept it. She still loves you.”
“Your mother made her decision 5 years ago when she cheated. I now make mine.”
“She’s destroying our family.”
“The only thing I regret is raising a son this weak.”
Genuine disappointment entered Nico’s voice.
The color left Liam’s face.
He stood with his mouth open and the wound of his father’s words visible in his eyes. Then he turned, almost ran from the house, and slammed the door hard enough to disturb the framed pictures on the wall.
Nico returned to the leather chair and drank from the whiskey.
Rocco appeared at the door.
“Boss?”
“I’m fine.”
His voice communicated otherwise.
Later that evening, my phone vibrated while I sat in my apartment, still processing the disastrous dinner.
A message from Nico appeared.
Can you come here? I need to see you.
I did not hesitate.
Rocco admitted me 20 minutes later without asking any questions.
I found Nico on the terrace, looking across the illuminated city with his hands in his pockets and tension held across his shoulders.
“Hi,” I said.
He turned, and something in his expression softened.
“Hi.”
He drew me into his arms and pressed his face against my hair.
“How was dinner?”
“Terrible. Amber provoked me. I lost my temper and left.”
“And you?” I asked.
“Liam was here. It was also terrible.”
We remained together, finding temporary comfort in each other while the people around us seemed determined to separate us.
“They will not stop,” I said against his chest.
“I know.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“Neither will we.”
Standing beneath the stars with the city below and the weight of everyone’s opposition around us, I believed him.
Valentina, Liam, and Amber were preparing for a war.
The worst was still ahead.
Yet being with Nico in the middle of the chaos felt more correct than anything I had known before.
That had to mean something.
The first box arrived on a Monday, wrapped in silver paper and tied with a black satin ribbon.
There was no return address, but I knew who had sent it.
Inside lay an expensive pearl necklace and a card written in elegant script.
He always comes back to me. He always has.
It was the 3rd delivery within 2 weeks.
The first had been a book about relationships with significant age differences. Several passages explaining why those relationships rarely endured had been underlined.
The second had been a wedding photograph of Valentina and Nico looking radiant, accompanied by a note containing only 2 words.
15 years.
I dropped the box onto the table and stepped away as though it might burn me.
My phone vibrated.
Amber had tagged me in a photograph of herself smiling beside Liam at an expensive restaurant.
The caption expressed supposedly affectionate concern that her sister was passing through a difficult period and might soon find someone her own age.
The comments beneath it were cruel.
Gold digger.
Home-wrecker.
Desperate.
I blocked Amber again. She repeatedly created new accounts.
3 days later, Valentina appeared at a charity event I had organized for work.
She wore a red dress nearly identical to the one I had worn on the night I met Nico. Throughout the evening, she circulated among the guests and delivered poisonous remarks with a smile.
“Nico has always been generous,” she said loudly enough for me to hear. “Even during this strange phase, he remains the man I met and loved. Men of a certain age occasionally need to feel young. It passes. They return to what is real and what has history.”
I left before the event ended because I could no longer tolerate her smile.
I went directly to Nico’s apartment using the key he had given me the previous week.
He sat in his office working despite the time approaching midnight. When I entered, concern immediately filled his face.
“What happened?”
I dropped my purse and told him everything: the boxes, notes, Amber’s posts, rumors, Valentina’s presence, every cutting comment, and every judgmental look.
“Perhaps we should stop,” I said before I could prevent the words. “Before this becomes worse. Before someone is seriously hurt.”
Nico stood and came around the desk.
“Do you want to stop?”
I wanted to answer yes because yes would have been easier and safer.
It would not have been true.
“No.”
Tears moved down my face.
“But your former wife, your son, my sister, and almost everyone else seem to oppose us.”
“They are not more important than you.”
He dried the tears with his thumbs.
“Not Valentina, not Liam, not strangers. Nothing is more important than you.”
“How can you be certain?”
He led me to the sofa and sat beside me while keeping my hands within his.
“I spent 5 years alone. 5 empty years filled with work, power, and business. Valentina destroyed our marriage but never left me in peace. She called constantly, invented reasons to appear, and used Liam to manipulate me into returning.”
He tightened his hands around mine.
“I never returned. I never wanted to. But I also never truly moved forward.”
He looked at me.
“Until you. You brought me back to life. I will not lose this. I will not lose you.”
The tears returned for a different reason.
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
He kissed me slowly.
The kiss lacked the urgency of those that had come before. It carried promise and a future.
“Stay here tonight,” he said when we separated. “I don’t want you returning alone.”
“Okay.”
I did not want to be anywhere else.
His bedroom was minimalist and elegant, with windows extending from floor to ceiling and a wide view of the city.
He gave me 1 of his shirts to wear.
When I returned from the bathroom, he stood beside the window.
“You’re beautiful.”
I crossed the room, my heart accelerating.
“Should I stay?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I want to.”
He took my hand and led me toward the bed.
What followed was slow, careful, and unexpectedly tender. Every touch was deliberate, every kiss filled with feeling, as though he wanted to remember every moment.
When we joined, it was more than physical. The emotional connection was deep enough to make everything else disappear.
Afterward, I lay within his arms with my head against his chest, listening to his heart.
“No regrets?” he asked while his fingers moved lightly across my back.
“None. You?”
“Never. You are the best decision I have made.”
While we slept, Valentina sat elsewhere in the city inside her immaculate living room with a glass of wine and made a decision of her own.
She called a number she had not used in years.
The man who answered possessed a rough, dangerous voice.
“Marco,” she said. “We need to speak about Nico Rossi and a small complication.”
Marco Castellano, Nico’s longtime rival in the city’s criminal businesses, smiled at the other end.
“I’m listening.”
“His girlfriend, Luna Brennan, leaves work every evening at 6:00. The café is on Sullivan Street. She leaves alone and without protection. Nico has not assigned security to her because he is overconfident.”
Valentina drank from her wine.
“It would be useful if something happened to her. Nothing permanent. Only enough to show Nico that this relationship creates problems.”
“What do I receive?”
“Information about Nico’s next actions, transportation routes, contacts, and anything else you require to overcome the Rossi organization.”
Marco considered the proposal.
“Tomorrow at 6:00?”
“Tomorrow at 6:00.”
Liam was making a different attempt from the apartment he shared with Amber.
“You should call her,” Amber said while painting her nails. “Tell her that you miss her and still love her.”
“I don’t.”
“That is irrelevant. The purpose is to make her doubt Nico. Your mother is right. We need to destroy this before it becomes permanent.”
Liam stared at his phone before composing a message.
Checking on you. I hope you’re well and safe. I know my father can be complicated. If you need me, I’m here.
The message was delivered and read.
I did not answer.
The following evening, I left work at exactly 6:00.
The setting sun colored the sky orange and pink. The pavement was crowded with people returning home.
I removed my phone, intending to call Nico, and smiled as I remembered the previous night.
Then I stopped.
A black van waited in front of the café with its side door open and engine running.
Before I understood what was happening, 2 men approached from behind.
A cloth covered my mouth and nose. A chemical odor filled my lungs.
I attempted to scream and fight, but my arms and legs were already becoming heavy. The street began to turn around me.
I felt myself being dragged and heard distant voices.
“Quickly, before someone sees.”
“Valentina said no marks. The boss wants her intact.”
“Nico Rossi is going to pay for this.”
I reached for my phone, but it fell to the pavement.
The final thing I saw was the pink sky above me, beautiful and indifferent.
Then there was nothing.
30 minutes later, Nico called once, twice, and a 3rd time.
Each call went directly to voicemail.
Something tightened inside him. I always answered.
He called Rocco.
“Collect Luna from work. Now.”
“Boss, I thought she was going directly home.”
“Now.”
Rocco called back 20 minutes later, his voice tense.
“Her phone was on the pavement with the screen broken. Her purse is gone. Witnesses saw 2 men drag her into a black van.”
Silence followed.
When Nico spoke, his voice was cold enough to make Rocco shiver.
“Find her. Mobilize everyone. Burn the city if necessary. I want every informant, contact, and security camera in the district searched.”
He paused.
“And Rocco?”
“Yes, boss?”
“Find out who did this, because when I find them…”
He did not finish.
He did not need to.
I woke with a throbbing headache and a mouth so dry it hurt.
The smell reached me first: mold, rusted metal, and a chemical odor that disturbed my stomach.
When I attempted to move, I discovered that my hands had been tied behind my back. Rough rope cut into my wrists.
May you like
The room was dark, illuminated only by a weak bulb hanging from the ceiling. It moved slightly, causing shadows to travel over concrete walls.
It might have been an abandoned warehouse or basement, a place where screams would not reach anyone.
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