Chapter 8 - Scarlett’s Dream Became the Next TargetThree years later, Scarlett Moretti owned a company Dante was not allowed to interfere with.
This rule had become increasingly difficult for him.
Rose & Vine Catering employed thirty-two people.
It served weddings, corporate events, private dinners and charity galas across Chicago.
Scarlett had repaid her original business loan eighteen months early.
Dante kept the payoff letter framed in his office.
Scarlett found this ridiculous.
Dante considered it evidence.
On a Tuesday morning she entered his office carrying a folder.
“I need advice.”
Dante immediately closed his laptop.
“Financial?”
“Yes.”
He looked suspiciously pleased.
Scarlett pointed at him.
“Advice. Not intervention.”
His enthusiasm decreased.
“Fine.”
She opened the folder.
Rose & Vine had been offered its largest contract ever.
A three-year hospitality agreement for a network of convention centers.
The deal could nearly double her company.
Dante reviewed the numbers.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“The margins are too generous.”
“That was my thought.”
“Who negotiated from their side?”
“Caldwell Hospitality.”
Dante became still.
Scarlett noticed.
“You know them.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dante leaned back.
“They purchased two properties from me years ago.”
“Legitimate properties?”
“Yes.”
“That pause was unnecessary.”
“I was offended by the question.”
“Dante.”
“Yes. Legitimate.”
Scarlett sat.
“So what’s wrong?”
“The company changed ownership last year.”
“To whom?”
“Private equity group.”
“And?”
Dante looked at her.
“The managing partner is Ethan Cole.”
Scarlett blinked.
Then laughed.
Dante did not.
“The bartender?”
“Yes.”
“The bartender you once had removed from my schedule because you were jealous?”
“Adjusted.”
“Removed.”
“Temporarily.”
Scarlett laughed harder.
“This is incredible.”
“I see no humor.”
“You absolutely do.”
“I do not.”
“You are jealous again.”
“I am evaluating counterparty risk.”
“You hate him.”
“He touched your back.”
“Seven years ago.”
“I remember.”
Scarlett stared.
“Of course you do.”
Ethan was no longer a bartender.
After leaving Vita Vecchia, he had gone to business school.
Then consulting.
Then private equity.
He was successful.
Very successful.
And apparently still charming.
Scarlett met him Thursday.
Dante was not invited.
This created a domestic situation.
“I am not attending?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because this is my meeting.”
“I can sit silently.”
Scarlett stared.
Dante reconsidered.
“I can attempt to sit silently.”
“No.”
“What if Marcus attends?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus works for you.”
“He likes you better.”
“That is irrelevant.”
Dante followed her toward the front door.
“Scarlett.”
She turned.
“You trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Then trust me.”
He hated reasonable arguments.
“Fine.”
She kissed him.
“Thank you.”
“Call when you finish.”
“I will.”
“Immediately.”
“Recovering.”
Dante sighed.
Scarlett left.
The meeting went well.
Too well.
Ethan was professional.
Funny.
Respectful.
He remembered Scarlett but did not flirt.
The contract was real.
The generous margins came from Caldwell’s aggressive expansion strategy.
Scarlett returned home excited.
Dante listened.
Then asked twelve questions.
She answered eleven.
“What’s question twelve?”
“Did he touch your back?”
Scarlett threw a pillow at him.
Three weeks later, Rose & Vine signed.
Six months later, everything collapsed.
Caldwell Hospitality filed for bankruptcy.
Invoices stopped being paid.
Rose & Vine was owed $1.8 million.
Payroll was due in eleven days.
Scarlett sat at the kitchen table staring at the numbers.
Dante stood across from her.
“I can cover it.”
“No.”
“Scarlett.”
“No.”
“This is not pride anymore. Thirty-two employees depend on you.”
“I know.”
“So let me provide bridge financing.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to know what happened first.”
Dante stared.
She looked exhausted.
But not defeated.
“I signed the contract. I approved the exposure. I grew too fast.”
“You were deceived.”
“Maybe.”
“That matters.”
“It doesn’t erase my responsibility.”
Dante sat.
“What do you need?”
Scarlett looked at him.
“Help me understand the financial structure.”
Not fix.
Understand.
Dante nodded.
They worked until three in the morning.
By sunrise they found it.
The bankruptcy was not accidental.
Assets had been transferred months earlier.
Debt loaded onto operating companies.
Cash extracted through consulting fees.
Caldwell had been deliberately hollowed out.
Ethan had signed several documents.
Scarlett stared at his signature.
“He knew.”
Dante said nothing.
Scarlett called him.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
At noon Ethan appeared at Rose & Vine.
He looked terrible.
“Scarlett.”
She stood.
“Tell me you didn’t know.”
Ethan closed the office door.
“I knew the company was unstable.”
Her face changed.
“But not this unstable.”
“You signed the transfers.”
“I was told they were restructuring.”
“You have an MBA.”
“I know.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Ethan sat.
“I was stupid.”
Scarlett’s anger sharpened.
“No. You were greedy.”
He looked at her.
“You saw numbers you wanted to believe.”
Ethan lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Dante arrived ten minutes later.
Scarlett saw him through the glass.
He entered.
Looked at Ethan.
Seven years disappeared from his expression.
Ethan stood.
“Dante.”
“Mr. Cole.”
Scarlett stepped between them.
“No.”
Dante looked at her.
“You don’t even know what I was going to do.”
“I know your face.”
“I have one face.”
“You have at least six terrifying faces.”
Ethan almost smiled.
Dante looked at him.
The smile disappeared.
Scarlett said, “Ethan is going to help us.”
Ethan blinked.
“I am?”
“Yes.”
Dante looked equally displeased.
“He is?”
Scarlett pointed toward Ethan.
“You know the internal structure.”
Then toward Dante.
“You know how to follow money.”
Then toward herself.
“And I’m the idiot whose company is trapped between both of you.”
“You are not an idiot,” Dante said immediately.
Ethan nodded.
“She isn’t.”
Dante stared at him.
“Do not agree with me.”
Scarlett closed her eyes.
“Men are exhausting.”
Over the next six days, they built a case.
Not revenge.
Evidence.
Ethan provided emails.
Dante’s lawyers traced transfers.
Scarlett coordinated with other unpaid vendors.
Together, fourteen businesses filed an emergency action against Caldwell’s parent company.
The court froze $28 million in transferred assets.
Rose & Vine recovered enough to make payroll.
Scarlett personally called every employee.
Nobody lost a job.
On Friday evening, she returned home.
Dante was waiting in the kitchen.
Charlotte, now four, sat at the island coloring.
“Mommy!”
Scarlett picked her up.
Dante watched them.
Charlotte whispered loudly, “Daddy said bad words about Ethan.”
Scarlett looked at Dante.
He looked betrayed.
“Charlotte.”
“You did.”
Scarlett laughed.
Dante rubbed his forehead.
Later, after Charlotte slept, Scarlett found him on the terrace.
“You saved my company.”
“No.”
“You helped.”
“Yes.”
“There’s a difference.”
“I am learning.”
She leaned against him.
“I almost called you the first day.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I knew you would fix it.”
“I could have.”
“I know.”
Dante frowned.
“That still sounds inefficient.”
Scarlett smiled.
“I needed to find out whether I could survive something going wrong.”
He looked at her.
“And?”
“I can.”
Dante kissed her temple.
“Yes.”
She turned toward him.
“You know what the strange part is?”
“What?”
“Seven years ago, you thought protecting me meant preventing anything bad from happening.”
Dante sighed.
“I was exhausting.”
“You still are.”
“Thank you.”
“Now you understand that sometimes protecting someone means standing beside them while they fix it themselves.”
Dante looked at her.
“That sounds significantly less satisfying.”
Scarlett laughed.
Then kissed him.
Inside the house, Charlotte appeared in the doorway holding her rabbit.
“Mommy?”
Scarlett turned.
“What happened?”
“I had a bad dream.”
Dante was already moving.
Charlotte reached for him.
He picked her up.
She rested her head against his shoulder.
Dante’s entire expression changed.
Scarlett watched.
Seven years earlier, this man had believed tenderness was weakness.
Now he carried a sleepy four-year-old through a warm house while whispering that monsters were not allowed inside.
Scarlett followed them.
She realized something.
Dante had spent his life believing his greatest legacy would be an empire.
May you like
He had been wrong.
His legacy was walking upstairs in pink pajamas with her arms around his neck.
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