“You’re probably right. He would have most likely killed you and Elio if he knew the truth.”
Lucia lets out a bitter laugh. "I think he planned to kill me, anyway." Slowly, she reaches for the collar of her blouse and tugs it down slightly, just enough to reveal a long, jagged scar along her collarbone, the skin puckered and stretched with time.
My jaw tightens. "He did that?" My stomach knots.
She nods, swallowing hard. "One of many. Your father may have been the man I truly loved, but I paid for that love every single day. My husband… he wasn’t just cruel in the way he ordered men to kill. He enjoyed breaking people. And I was his favourite thing to break."
Rage flares hot in my chest, but beneath it there’s something cold that's glad I put a bullet in him, and I can't wait to do the same with Rose’s abuser.
I never doubted it was the right thing. Not for a second. But now, knowing what he did to Lucia, knowing what he put Rose through, what he put all of us through, a part of me wonders if I should have made him suffer more. I shake my head, exhaling sharply. “If I had known?—”
She stops me with a look. “No. What you did, you did for your mother. For yourself. But you also saved me, Dan. I won’t pretend I wasn’t relieved when I found him dead. For the first time in my life, I could breathe.”
I let that sink in. Her husband’s death wasn’t just justice. It was freedom.
She shifts her gaze to Rose, her expression softening. “But the scars he left didn’t die with him. They live on in the people he hurt. You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”
I look at Rose, my throat tightening. “She has scars too.”
Her mother nods. “From her husband.”
I close my eyes briefly, remembering the first time I saw them. The thin, raised marks trailing over her back. The way she flinched when I first traced them with my fingers. The way her breath caught, like she was waiting for something bad to happen.
I’d never hated anyone more in my life than I did at that moment. I force out a breath. “No one ever hurts her again. I’ll make sure of it.”
Her mother reaches for my hand, her grip surprisingly strong. “You’re the only one I trust to do that, Dan.”
Silence settles between us, heavy but not suffocating. Understanding.
“Do you know why she married him?”
I swallow the bile in my throat, not sure I want to know the reason she married a monster while I was lying broken in a field hospital after the helicopter accident. “It’s all in the past now. It doesn’t matter.”
“She made a deal with her uncle and Elio. He put a target on your back and your brother’s. Nothing I said would appease him. He wanted revenge. I should have told Elio the truth back then, but I feared if my husband’s relatives got word, they’d cast Elio out of the family, and me.”
Through gritted teeth, I say, “What was the deal?”
“She begged him not to kill you or your brother. Said she’d do anything.” Lucia strokes Rose’s forehead. “Elio needed to solidify ties overseas. With my husband gone, the family was vulnerable. Her uncle said if she married Elio’s contact in the UK who owned the casino, the head of the Italian crime family in London, he’d call off the hit for you and your brother.”
I close my eyes, holding back the flood of emotion threatening to drown me. “I thought she did it out of spite. I couldn’t stand the thought of her with another man, so I spent every waking hour gathering as much dirt on him as I could to make a case to put him behind bars.” My palms warm Rose’s hand between them, hoping if she can hear me, that she’ll forgive me. “I wanted her to hurt like I was. I wanted her to be as miserable as me.” I silently curse myself for being such a fucking selfish bastard. “The whole time she was in an abusive relationship.” I fight back the emotion clogged in my throat.
Lucia nods. “She hid it well for Angelos’ sake. But putting Magnus behind bars probably saved her life.” She gives me a warm smile. “You’ve both had this connection since you were young, and you’ve unintentionally saved each other on numerous occasions.” Her gaze drops to the cross in her hands. “You’re not just two people who found each other—you’re two souls that have been reaching for each other acrosstime, through every scar, every loss. She saved you when you didn’t even know you needed saving, and I know you’ll spend the rest of your life doing the same for her.”
Rose’s mother squeezes my hand one last time before releasing it, and leaning back in her chair. "You should get some rest. She’s going to need you when she wakes up."
I nod, but I don’t move.
Because until Rose opens her eyes, I won’t rest.
We’re broken in different ways, but somehow, the pieces fit. She’s been saving me for as long as I’ve been saving her. Maybe that’s what love really is—two souls pulling each other out of the darkness, over and over again.
41
ROSE
Pain is all I feel. A dull, aching weight presses into my side, like something heavy is lodged beneath my ribs. My body is sluggish, my limbs unresponsive, but the pain is real.
Then comes the soft beeping sound, a rhythmic, steady hum of machines, the occasional rustle of fabric, quiet murmurs.
