As the call ends, I stare at my phone, the full weight of what I’m doing crashing over me.
The alliance is secured. We’ve even started preparing for war, if the Romanos should demand it. Gigi has served her purpose. According to my original timeline, this is when I was supposed to?—
I slam my eyes shut. I can’t even finish the thought. The idea of harming her, of being responsible for silencing her laugh…
It makes me physically ill.
I pour myself coffee in the kitchen, noting the fresh flowers Gigi must have had the housekeeper—Flora—arrange yesterday. White roses and something else I don’t recognize (baby’s breath? Maybe?), filling the space with a subtle fragrance that somehow makes the entire estate feel more alive.
That’s what she’s done. Made everything feel morealive. The staff smiles more and don’t scuttle around the mansion looking like they’re about to piss themselves. The estate itself seems lighter and brighter, like sunshine after a storm.
Even my men have noticed. I’ve caught them chatting with her in the hallway, showing her pictures of their families, laughingat her jokes. She’s won them over with some combination of genuine kindness and surprising backbone—the same qualities that have completely destroyed my carefully maintained emotional distance.
Well, almost all of them.
“Morning, boss.” Danny’s voice interrupts my spiraling thoughts. He’s already dressed for the day in a white dress shirt and gray slacks, coffee in hand, looking annoyingly alert for six in the morning. “You’re up early.”
I shrug. “Couldn’t sleep.”
He settles into the chair across from me, and I can see him gearing up to say something I won’t want to hear. That’s been happening more frequently lately—Danny testing boundaries, pushing against decisions I’ve made.
“Dimitri came to me yesterday,” he says carefully, his face solemn. “Asked when we’re moving forward with ‘disposing of the complications.’”
My hand tightens around my coffee mug hard enough that I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter. “What did you tell him?” I ask hoarsely.
“That it’s not his concern and he should keep his mouth shut.” Danny’s eyes are sharp on my face. “But he’s not wrong to wonder, is he? The Torrinos and Marchettis are aligned. By your original timeline, we should have already?—”
“Enough.” I can’t get the word out fast enough. “Don’t you fucking finish that sentence.”
“Why not?” Danny leans forward, his voice dropping lower as his eyes gleam. “Because you can’t follow through anymore?Because somewhere between planning Giuliana’s death and actually getting to know her, you fell in love?”
I recoil. It’s one thing for me to be thinking it, but for Danny to actually voice it?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, but it sounds hollow even to my own ears.
Danny scoffs. “Bullshit.” He’s rarely this direct with me, which means he’s been thinking about this for a while. “I’ve known you for a long time, Luca. I’ve seen you at your worst—after Marco died, during the planning of this entire revenge plot. But I’veneverseen you like you’ve been these past two weeks.”
I stiffen, wondering where this is going. “Like what?”
“Happy.” The word lands like a grenade, and it takes everything in me to not flinch. “Actually, genuinelyhappy. Not just distracted or temporarily satisfied, buthappy.” Danny shakes his head, bringing his hand to his mouth as if he also can’t believe it. “The way you look at her, the way you light up when she walks into a room. You’ve been smiling more in two weeks than you did in three years…. She’s good for you, boss. Really good. And you know it.”
I can’t deny it. I can’t pretend that Gigi hasn’t changed everything about my life in ways I didn’t plan for.
“That doesn’t change,” I start, but Danny cuts me off.
“Doesn’t change what? Your responsibility to Marco’s memory? Your carefully planned revenge that was supposed to balance his death?” His voice carries an edge now. “Or maybe it changes everything, and you’re just too stubborn to admit it.”
“You don’t understand?—”
“I understand that you’re in love with her.” Danny’s voice is quiet but firm, his green eyes locked on mine. “I understand that she’s made you into someone Marco would be proud of.”
I flinch at that, but Danny continues.
“I understand that following through with your original plan would destroy the best thing that’s happened to you in years.”
I close my eyes, unable to look at Danny right now, to see the truth on his face. Because he’s one hundred percent right. Gigi has made me better—made me more like the man Marco believed I could be and less like the monster my father was.
But admitting that means admitting I’ve abandoned my quest for justice. It means accepting that three years of planning, of systematic revenge, of promising Marco I’d make things right—all of it was for nothing.
