Updated Nov 6, 2025 • ~11 min read
That evening, after Lucia was asleep and the house had settled into quiet, I found myself wandering the halls. Restless. Unable to shake the sensation of Dante’s hand near my face. The question in his eyes.
Unless you want more.
Did I?
I found myself in front of a set of double doors I hadn’t explored yet. They were slightly ajar, soft light spilling through the gap.
I pushed them open.
A library. Two stories of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Leather chairs arranged near a fireplace. A rolling ladder attached to rails. It was breathtaking.
And Dante was there.
He sat in one of the chairs, a glass of whiskey in hand, staring into the fire. He’d changed from his suit into dark jeans and a fitted black shirt. More relaxed than I’d seen him since Portland.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked without looking at me.
“How did you know it was me?”
“Your perfume. Same one you wore three years ago.” He finally turned. “Jasmine and something else. I never could figure out what.”
“Vanilla.”
“Vanilla.” He repeated it like he was committing it to memory. “Sit.”
I should have left. Should have gone back to my room. Instead, I sat in the chair across from him.
“Want a drink?” he offered.
“I probably shouldn’t.”
“That wasn’t a no.”
He stood, poured me a glass of wine from a decanter on the side table. Handed it to me.
Our fingers brushed. Neither of us pulled away immediately.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
He returned to his chair. We sat in silence, the fire crackling between us.
“I used to come here,” Dante said eventually. “After you left. Sit in this exact spot and try to figure out what I did wrong. What I could have done differently to make you stay.”
Guilt twisted in my chest. “Dante—”
“I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad. I’m telling you because you asked what happens after. After the meeting. After Sterling.” He took a drink. “I need you to understand that I can’t go through that again. The not knowing. The wondering if you’re alive or dead.”
“I’m sorry. I am. But I was scared—”
“I know. You’ve said that. And I understand it. Logically, I understand why you ran.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “But emotionally? Sofia, you destroyed me. You took the best thing in my life and vanished. And now you’re back, and I have a daughter I didn’t know about, and I’m supposed to just… what? Move forward like those three years didn’t happen?”
“I don’t know what you want from me.”
“I want the truth. All of it.” His eyes locked on mine. “The murder you witnessed. Tell me everything. Because if we’re going into this meeting together, if I’m supposed to protect you from Sterling, I need to know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
I took a long drink of wine. Gathered my courage.
“It was late. After 2 AM. I’d come to your club looking for you. You’d been gone for three days, and I was worried.” The memories flooded back. “I used the private entrance. The one you’d given me a key to. I was walking toward your office when I heard voices. Shouting. Then a gunshot.”
Dante’s expression didn’t change, but his grip on his glass tightened.
“I froze. I should have run right then, but I froze. And then I heard someone walking toward where I was hiding. So I ducked behind some equipment. Boxes. I don’t even remember.”
“Did you see his face?”
“No. It was too dark. I just saw… a silhouette. A man. Walking past. He was on the phone. Calling someone. Telling them it was done.”
“What did his voice sound like?”
I closed my eyes, trying to remember. “Calm. Too calm. Like he’d just done something ordinary. He had an accent. Maybe European? I couldn’t place it.”
Dante went very still. “European.”
“Does that mean something?”
He didn’t answer directly. “What happened after?”
“He left. I waited until I was sure he was gone, then I ran. Out the back exit. Into the street. I didn’t stop running until I was miles away.” I looked at him. “The next morning, I found out I was pregnant. And I knew I couldn’t stay. Couldn’t raise a child in a world where I’d witnessed something like that.”
“So you took the files as insurance and disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Dante stood, paced to the fireplace. His back was to me, shoulders tense.
“The man who was killed,” he said finally. “His name was Viktor Kozlov. Russian. He was stealing from my shipments. Selling information to the feds.”
“So you had him killed.”
“No.” He turned to face me. “I didn’t order that hit. I was planning to handle Kozlov differently. More quietly. But someone got to him first.”
Understanding dawned. “An unsanctioned hit.”
“Yes. Someone in my organization went rogue. Took matters into their own hands.” His jaw clenched. “I spent months trying to figure out who. Never could prove it.”
“But you have suspicions.”
“I had suspicions. Now I have a description. European accent. Calm under pressure.” He pulled out his phone, typed something. “There were only a few people in the club that night. I can narrow it down.”
“Dante, if you figure out who it was—”
“Then I handle it. Internally. Quietly.” He put the phone away. “But that’s my problem. Not yours.”
“If Luca has photos of me there, it becomes my problem too.”
“Which is why we’re handling this at the Navarro meeting. Together.” He moved closer. “But I need you to promise me something.”
“What?”
“No more secrets. No more running. If something scares you, if you see something you shouldn’t, you come to me. Not away from me. To me.”
“That’s asking a lot.”
“I know.” He crouched down in front of my chair, bringing us eye to eye. “But I’m asking anyway. Because I can’t protect you and Lucia if you’re keeping secrets. And I can’t build a future—whatever that looks like—on lies.”
His hands rested on the arms of my chair, caging me in. We were inches apart. Close enough that I could see the faint scar near his temple. The exhaustion in his eyes.
“What kind of future are you imagining?” I whispered.
“I don’t know yet. But I know it includes Lucia. It includes making sure she’s safe. Happy. That she has both her parents.” His voice dropped. “And maybe, if we can get past the hurt and the anger and the fear… it includes us figuring out if there’s anything left worth saving.”
“From three years ago?”
“From before you ran. When things were good. When we were good.”
My breath caught. “Dante—”
“I’m not saying we go back to how things were. We can’t. Too much has happened. But maybe we can build something new. Something better.”
“Or maybe we’ll just hurt each other again.”
“Maybe.” He reached up, cupped my face gently. “But maybe it’s worth the risk.”
I should have pulled away. Should have maintained boundaries. Instead, I leaned into his touch.
“This is a bad idea,” I breathed.
“Probably.”
“We’re supposed to be pretending. For the meeting. Not—”
“Not what?” His thumb traced my cheekbone. “Not feeling anything real? Too late for that, cara.”
The endearment undid me.
I surged forward, closing the distance between us.
Our lips met, and it was like three years collapsed into nothing. His hands tangled in my hair. Mine gripped his shirt. The kiss was desperate. Hungry. Full of everything we’d left unsaid.
He pulled back slightly, breathing hard. “Sofia—”
“Don’t. Don’t think. Don’t analyze.” I pulled him back. “Just… don’t.”
He made a sound low in his throat. Then he was kissing me again, deeper this time. His hands slid down my sides, gripped my waist, pulled me from the chair.
I ended up in his lap, straddling him, the kiss turning molten.
It felt like coming home and jumping off a cliff simultaneously.
His phone buzzed.
We froze.
It buzzed again. Insistent.
“Ignore it,” I breathed against his mouth.
“I can’t. Could be about Lucia. Or Sterling.”
Cursing, he pulled the phone from his pocket. Glanced at the screen.
His entire demeanor changed.
“What is it?”
He set me aside gently, stood, answered the phone. “Adrian. Talk to me.”
I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but I watched Dante’s expression shift from passion to cold fury.
“When?” A pause. “How many?” Another pause. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Get everyone in position.”
He hung up. Looked at me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Sterling just made contact with Caleb Navarro. Directly. He’s meeting with him tomorrow morning.”
My stomach dropped. “He’s going to tell him everything.”
“Probably.” Dante was already moving, buttoning his shirt, becoming the Don again. “Which means we’re out of time. The meeting with Caleb has been moved up. It’s happening tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow? But I’m not ready. Elias said I needed more—”
“You’ll have to be ready.” He pulled out his phone again, started typing. “I’m calling in everyone. Marco. Elias. Adrian. We’re going to war-game every possible scenario.”
“Dante—”
He stopped, came back to me. Gripped my shoulders.
“Listen to me. Tomorrow night, you’re going to walk into that room on my arm. You’re going to smile. You’re going to play your part perfectly. And we’re going to show Caleb Navarro that the Marchetti family is united. Strong. Unshakable.”
“What if I mess up? What if I say the wrong thing or—”
“You won’t. Because I’ll be right there with you. Every second.” His grip softened. “I promised you I’d keep you safe. That hasn’t changed.”
“Even after—” I gestured between us. “After what just happened?”
His eyes darkened. “Especially after what just happened. Because now we both know there’s still something here. Something worth fighting for.”
He kissed me again. Briefly. A promise.
“Get some sleep,” he said. “Tomorrow is going to be intense.”
He left, leaving me alone in the library, my lips still tingling, my heart racing.
What had I done?
I’d kissed Dante Marchetti. I’d opened a door I’d spent three years keeping closed.
And tomorrow, I’d have to pretend to be in love with him in front of people who could destroy us both.
The terrifying part?
I wasn’t sure how much of it would be pretending.
I returned to my room to find Jade waiting in the hallway.
“You have that look,” she said.
“What look?”
“The ‘I just made a questionable decision’ look. What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Sofia.”
I sighed. “I kissed him. Dante. I kissed Dante.”
Jade’s eyes widened. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah.”
“How was it?”
“Jade!”
“What? I’m living vicariously here. Throw me a bone.”
Despite everything, I smiled. “It was… intense.”
“I bet it was.” She studied me. “So what now? Are you guys back together? Is this a thing?”
“I don’t know. The meeting got moved up. It’s tomorrow night. Sterling met with Caleb. Everything’s accelerating.”
“Then you focus on surviving tomorrow. Deal with the feelings after.” She squeezed my arm. “But Sofia? For what it’s worth? I’ve seen the way he looks at you. The way you look at him. Even with all the baggage and danger and insanity… there’s something there.”
“I know. That’s what scares me.”
“Love is terrifying. Especially when it’s real.”
I thought about Dante’s hands in my hair. His promise to protect me. The way he’d looked when he said unless you want more.
“I need to check on Lucia,” I said.
I slipped into her room. She was fast asleep, her stuffed rabbit tucked under her arm, looking peaceful and perfect.
I kissed her forehead. “I love you, baby. No matter what happens tomorrow, I love you.”
Then I went to my own room, climbed into bed, and tried not to think about how everything was about to change.
Again.
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