For a moment, I imagine walking away.
Returning to Chicago, to the empire I built with my own hands.
It would be easier.
Cleaner.
But then Enzo's face flashes in my mind.
How quickly he picked up a card game I taught him yesterday, his serious expression when he asked if I'd be at his school play next month.
Something primal and fierce rises in me. My son. My son.
"I'm not leaving him." The words come hard, making sure he knows he’ll have to kill me before I’ll leave my family. "Do you understand? I will burn this entire fucking organization to the ground before I abandon my child."
Alessandro studies me, and I’m sure he can see my absolute, uncompromising resolve.
"What about Katerina?" he asks quietly.
"She's part of the package." I meet his gaze unflinchingly. "I lost her once. I won't lose her again."
"Even if she doesn't want you?"
"She will." The certainty in my voice surprises even me.
Alessandro sighs, suddenly looking tired. "You always were stubborn."
"Dante family trait."
For the first time since I returned, I see a ghost of a smile on my brother's face.
"I'm staying, Alessandro. We can find a way to make this work, or we can tear each other apart. Your choice."
The choice is clear to me. Enzo deserves his father. Katerina deserves the truth. And I deserve a chance to fight for the family I only just learned I had.
Whatever war comes, whether from the Bratva, from my own family, or from Katerina's resistance, I'll face it.
For them.
12
KATERINA
Enzo is at school, and I’m working from my desk in the cottage.
It’s not easy to straddle two worlds, and to be honest, now that Don Lorenzo is gone, I feel like my work is less valued than it had been.
I might be considered an ambassador of sorts, but I’m barely even a liaison. A few days a week, I work with Pyotr, but he’s been MIA.
It could be he’s working or, what I fear most, he’s back on drugs.
But I like working alone in my own space.
The silence is peaceful, at least usually.
Now the quiet creates space for thoughts I don’t want to think.
All of them about Luca.
