We take Romeo's car, driving through the empty streets toward the Ciresa estate in silence. He sends a text to someone, probably to make sure Dante knows we’re coming and will speak with us. I stare out the window and try to prepare myself, but there's no way to prepare for facing a man like Dante Ciresa when you've betrayed him in the worst possible way.
The estate is quiet when we arrive, most of the lights off except for the security stations and Dante's office. Romeo parks in front of the main house and kills the engine, and for a moment, we just sit there in the darkness.
"You ready?" he asks.
"No. But it doesn't matter. We have to do this."
"Yeah." Romeo opens his door and steps out into the night. "We do."
I follow him up the steps and into the house, past the guards who nod at Romeo. Romeo leads me down the familiar hallways to Dante's office, and with every step I take, I feel like I'm walking toward my own execution.
He knocks once, and Dante's voice comes from inside, telling us to come in.
Romeo opens the door and steps inside, and I follow him into the office, where I'm about to confess that I've betrayed everything I care about.
Dante is sitting behind his desk, reading something on his computer. He looks up when we enter. "Romeo. Luca." His voice is calm and controlled, giving nothing away. "This is unexpected."
"We need to talk to you." Romeo's voice is steady, but I can hear the tension beneath it. "About Giulia."
Dante's expression doesn't change, but something shifts in the air. Something dangerous and cold that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "Sit."
We sit in the chairs across from his desk, and I force myself to meet Dante's eyes even though every instinct I have is screaming at me to look away, to submit, to show deference to the man who holds my life in his hands.
"Talk."
Romeo runs his tongue over his lower lip. “Giulia has made a mistake,” he says finally. “She’s involved Luca in it, but he wasn’t aware of what she was doing. He was misled, deceived, and forced to do things he wouldn’t have otherwise done. She confessed tonight, and he came straight to me. I believe he’s being honest.”
Dante’s attention lingers on his son for only a moment before he looks coldly at me. “And?”
I take a deep breath, and I give him the shortest possible version of what happened: Valentina, the club, the time I spent falling for a woman who didn't exist. I tell him about tonight, about the revelation, and finally, that Giulia told me she was pregnant.
The word lands in the office like a wrecking ball, and I watch his face for any sign of what he's thinking and feeling, what he's planning to do to me.
But Dante's expression remains perfectly neutral throughout my entire confession. He doesn't interrupt, doesn't react, doesn't give any indication of the fury that must be building beneath that controlled exterior. When I finish, the silence in the office is absolute.
Then Dante leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers, his eyes fixed on me with an intensity that makes my skin crawl. "Is the pregnancy confirmed?" His voice is soft. Conversational. It’s more terrifying than if he'd been shouting.
"I—" I swallow hard. "I don't know. She told me she was pregnant, but I haven't seen proof. I haven't seen a test. I just—I took her word for it."
"I see." Dante picks up his phone and dials a number, his eyes never leaving my face. "Giulia. My office. Now."
He hangs up without waiting for a response, and the silence that follows is suffocating.
"Sir—" I start, but Dante holds up a hand.
"You'll speak when I tell you to speak." The words are quiet, but each one lands heavily. "Right now, you'll sit there and wait for my daughter to arrive. And then we'll determine exactly how much of what you've told me is truth and how much is a desperate attempt to save your own life."
I close my mouth and nod, my hands clenched into fists on my thighs. Romeo shifts beside me, and I can feel the tension radiating from him.
We wait. Five minutes pass. Then ten. Then fifteen.
Finally, there's a knock on the door, and Dante's voice cuts through the silence. "Enter."
The door opens, and Giulia steps inside.
She's wearing a pair of shorts and a long t-shirt that nearly covers them. Her eyes are red-rimmed, and her feet are bare, her hair loose. She looks so beautiful that even now, even after all the lies and how much I hate her in this moment, seeing her sends a jolt like a shock thrumming through me down to my bones. I don’t know if I want to hold her or slap her or fuck her, or some mixture of all three.
She looks at me first, and I see the flash of panic cross her face when she realizes I'm here. Then she looks at her father, and the panic turns to resignation.
