~VALENTINO’S POV~
The house had never felt so still.
Not the kind of silence that chilled you, but the kind that wraps around you, soft and heavy, after a storm has passed.
Outside, the black town car rolled down the gravel path and disappeared beyond the Romano gates.
Dante was behind the wheel, and in the back seat sat the woman who had once left me behind, and who had somehow returned to help me piece myself back together.
My mother.
I had ordered Dante to drive her back home even though a part of me still wanted her here.
I stood there, arms crossed over my chest, watching the car until it vanished beyond the horizon of stone walls and wrought iron gates.
The weight in my chest hadn’t lifted, not entirely, but it had shifted.
Just a dull ache that I was learning to carry.
Beside me, Alina stood close, the side of her body brushing mine. Her arm was looped through mine, like she knew I needed her there more than I was able to admit out loud.
I turned to her
