Chapter 3 - “Family.”
Dominic’s mouth tightened.
“I spent my entire childhood trying to become good enough that he would stop telling me where I failed.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
Something in his voice changed.
“He died disappointed.”
I felt sympathy.
Then resisted letting sympathy erase accountability.
“So you repeated it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“At first because it worked.”
He turned.
“You were extraordinary from the beginning.”
“The better you became, the more responsibility I gave you.”
“The more responsibility you handled, the more I demanded.”
“That explains pressure.”
“Not cruelty.”
“No.”
He looked down.
“The cruelty came later.”
“When?”
“When I realized I wanted you.”
Everything inside me stopped.
Dominic laughed once.
Bitterly.
“You really didn’t know.”
“How would I?”
“You practically threw objects every time I performed well.”
“Exactly.”
“That is not a recognizable romantic signal.”
“I know.”
“Then explain.”
He moved toward me but stopped several feet away.
“People close to me become targets.”
“Business partners.”
“Family.”
“Women.”
“Anyone enemies believe matters.”
“I knew from the beginning that getting involved with you would be inappropriate.”
“You worked for me.”
“There is a power imbalance.”
“You deserved a career not contaminated by rumors about sleeping with the boss.”
All reasonable.
“So I decided distance was the answer.”
I stared.
“Distance?”
“I thought if I made the job unbearable enough, you would eventually resign.”
The sheer stupidity stunned me.
“You were bullying me for my own good.”
“When you say it like that—”
“How else should I say it?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Dominic rubbed both hands over his face.
“It was twisted.”
“I see that now.”
“But I kept failing at the only part that mattered.”
“Letting you go.”
My anger weakened enough for hurt to enter.
“Why not fire me?”
“Because I couldn’t.”
His gray eyes met mine.
“I would spend all day trying to convince myself you should leave.”
“Then you’d walk into my office with the answer to a problem I had not even realized existed.”
“Or put coffee down because I had forgotten lunch.”
“Or argue with a lawyer twice your salary because he had missed something.”
His voice softened.
“And I would think, tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow I will push hard enough that she leaves.”
“Then tomorrow came, and I needed to hear your voice outside my office.”
The admission frightened me because I believed it.
“And Marcus?”
“Marcus noticed.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“He knows me better than anyone.”
“He knew I cared before you did.”
“He also knew you were angry with me.”
“So he offered the exact opposite.”
“Kindness.”
“Approval.”
“Time.”
“I’m not saying none of it was genuine.”
“That would be easier.”
“But he exploited the opening.”
“Why?”
“Harborview.”
“Riverside.”
“Power.”
Dominic moved toward the bar.
“We built everything together.”
“For years Marcus had equal influence.”
“But as I started pushing harder toward legitimate business, he resisted.”
“He thinks legitimacy makes us weak.”
“So he started building outside alliances.”
“Vitellis.”
“Yes.”
I remembered Marcus saying Dominic was too cautious.
Too rigid.
Marcus had been preparing me to see his betrayal as practicality.
“You knew restaurants were being monitored?”
“I knew Vitelli men were present.”
“And you let me keep going.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I had surveillance.”
“That is not the same as warning me.”
“No.”
“If you really care about me, Dominic, then understand something now.”
He faced me.
“Protection without information is still control.”
The sentence seemed to strike him.
I continued.
“You decided I couldn’t handle the truth.”
“So Marcus got to shape the story first.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
No defense.
No excuse.
That mattered.
I put the whiskey down.
“What now?”
Dominic walked closer.
Slowly.
“If you leave, I will help you.”
“No retaliation.”
“No sabotage.”
“I’ll write whatever recommendation you need.”
“Emma’s tuition will be covered regardless because I already committed to the educational benefit package you earned.”
I frowned.
“You are not buying my sister’s degree.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
He took another breath.
“If you stay professionally, I change how I manage you.”
“If…”
The word waited.
“And if I wanted something beyond professional?”
Dominic’s control finally broke.
Not dramatically.
His eyes changed.
“That is what I want.”
He said it quietly.
“But I will not ask you to decide tonight.”
“Because I don’t know how to be good at this.”
“I know power.”
“Risk.”
“Negotiation.”
“I do not know how to want someone without immediately calculating how much danger wanting them creates.”
My heart pounded.
“And yet?”
“And yet the thought of you leaving feels worse than the danger.”
“Dominic.”
He lifted one hand.
Stopped before touching me.
Waited.
Consent.
A tiny thing.
Enormous after months of commands.
I stepped forward enough that his palm reached my cheek.
Warm.
Careful.
“I need time.”
“You have it.”
“No punishment?”
His face tightened.
“I deserve that question.”
“Yes.”
“No punishment.”
I left.
I did not sleep much.
Sunday became lists.
What hurt.
What I wanted.
What I feared.
Marcus had given me false safety.
Dominic offered dangerous honesty.
Neither automatically deserved me.
That was the point I had missed.
The choice was not between them.
The choice was mine.
Monday, I called in sick.
The first sick day in eighteen months.
Tuesday morning Dominic called himself.
“Are you okay?”
“Define okay.”
A faint exhale.
“Fair.”
“Are you coming back?”
“I don’t know.”
“I understand.”
No command.
That mattered too.
“If I do,” I said, “there are rules.”
“Name them.”
“Complete honesty.”
“Yes.”
“If you suspect something, tell me.”
“No games.”
“No testing whether I figure it out.”
“Agreed.”
“Respect.”
“Professional criticism is fine.”
“Humiliation is not.”
“Agreed.”
“Third, privacy.”
“If anything personal happens between us, I refuse to become office entertainment.”
“Yes.”
“Fourth.”
I hesitated.
“I want the truth about your world.”
Silence.
“All of it.”
“What your business actually involves.”
“Why people fear you.”
“What staying close to you means.”
Dominic’s answer came slowly.
“That rule could make you leave.”
“Then I leave informed.”
He breathed out.
“Agreed.”
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“I want to speak to Marcus.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
Old instinct.
Control first.
Then:
“All right.”
“With you present?”
“Nearby.”
“Not in the room unless I ask.”
A pause.
“Fine.”
“Then I’ll come back Wednesday.”
Relief entered his voice.
“Thank you.”
I almost smiled.
“You’re thanking employees now?”
“Experimental program.”
Wednesday morning, every person on the executive floor looked at me.
I ignored them.
Dominic opened his office door.
“Welcome back.”
Professional tone.
Very different eyes.
Inside, instead of placing me across his desk, he gestured toward the seating area.
“Coffee?”
“Yes.”
He remembered cream.
One sugar.
Of course he did.
Before work, he said:
“Your position is secure regardless of what happens personally.”
I studied him.
“You understand I may decide this is impossible.”
“Yes.”
“And you do not get colder if I do.”
“No.”
“Good.”
That evening I went to his penthouse again.
This time for truth.
Dominic gave it.
His grandfather had built influence through protection rackets among immigrant businesses.
Then gambling.
Illegal lending.
Smuggling.
Dominic’s father expanded.
Dominic inherited both legitimate companies and criminal structures.
His goal now was transition.
Real estate.
Construction.
Hospitality.
Finance.
Cleaning the money, yes, but also actually shutting down operations he no longer wanted tied to his name.
“That sounds admirable when you say it quickly.”
“It isn’t clean.”
He held my gaze.
“I have hurt people.”
“I have ordered things I cannot make respectable with language.”
“Do you kill people?”
The question sat between us.
Dominic did not flinch.
“I have authorized violence.”
Cold moved through me.
“Recently?”
“Not in the way my father did.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
He looked down.
“Not recently.”
I processed that.
No romanticizing.
No “good mafia man” fantasy.
His world was dangerous because people made ugly choices inside it.
“What are you trying to become?”
“Legitimate enough that Emma’s children would never know why my name frightened people.”
The answer surprised me.
“And the Vitellis?”
“They profit from the old structure.”
“They want expansion.”
“I refuse.”
May you like
“So they see you as weak.”
“Yes.”
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