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CHAPTER NINE
publish date:
2026-03-23 23:36:47
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HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE
“NEVER LIE TO THE EYES THAT LOOK AT YOU WITH LOVE.”SOFIAThe weeks that follow are the quietest of my life.And I have lived some very quiet years.Isabella comes home after five days in the hospital. She comes home with a small bandage at the back of her head and strict instructions about rest and no running and no climbing for at least three weeks which she immediately and loudly disagrees with.Hearing her argue about it in the car on the way home is the best sound I have heard in my entire life.She is okay. She is home. She is loud and opinionated about the injustice of not being allowed to run and she is okay.Dante carries her inside.She wraps her arms around his neck and rests her head on his shoulder and he carries her in like she is the most precious thing he has ever held and he brings her to her room and sets her down on her bed and tucks her in and reads to her until she falls asleep.Then he comes out of her room and walks past me in the hallway.He doesn't look at me.
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER EIGHTY
"THE HARDEST THING ABOUT THE TRUTH IS NOT SAYING IT. IT'S SURVIVING WHAT COMES AFTER."SOFIADante comes back with coffee and a sandwich wrapped in paper that I will not be able to eat and he sits beside me and hands them over and for a few minutes we just sit there together in the quiet of the waiting room and I hold the coffee with both hands and let the warmth of it seep into my fingers.He doesn't say much.Neither do I.But I can feel it. The thing sitting between us that wasn't there before today. Not a coldness exactly — he is still close, still present, still the person who held my hands when they were shaking. But there is something underneath the quiet now. Something careful. Like a man who is holding a question in his mouth and has decided not to let it out yet.Not yet.The doctor comes out after another hour and tells us Isabella is responding well to the transfusion. The swelling is being monitored closely but the outlook is better than it was this morning. She will need
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE
"THE TRUTH HAS A WAY OF MAKING ITSELF KNOWN WHETHER YOU ARE READY FOR IT OR NOT."SOFIADante has been gone for maybe ten minutes.Coffee, he said. He was going to find me coffee and something to eat because I hadn't eaten since this morning and he noticed even though I didn't say anything about it. He just stood up and said stay here in that quiet way of his that isn't really a request and went to find the hospital cafeteria.I watched him go and then I turned back to the double doors and went back to staring at them.That is mostly what I have been doing for the past two hours.Staring at those doors and breathing and trying not to think too far in any direction because every direction I think in leads somewhere that makes the fear worse.The waiting room has emptied out slightly. The young couple from earlier are gone — I hope that means they got good news. The chairs around me are mostly vacant now, just a few other people scattered around the edges of the room doing their own ver
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT
"THE TRUTH DOESN'T ALWAYS ARRIVE LOUDLY. SOMETIMES IT JUST SITS BESIDE YOU AND WAITS UNTIL YOU'RE READY TO LOOK AT IT."DANTEI sit in the small chair and roll up my sleeve and stare at the wall while the nurse does what she needs to do and I think about Isabella. About how small she looked on that gurney. About those dark curls against the white pillow. About eyes that are supposed to be wide open and full of questions being closed when they shouldn't be.Something is sitting in the middle of my chest that I can't name properly.I've been hurt before. Broken before. I've been through things that should have finished me off completely. I know what pain feels like in every form it comes in.But this is different.This is a child.A six year old child who grabbed my hand without thinking about it. Who made me do the voices when I read her stories even though I felt completely ridiculous doing them. Who laughed so loudly and so freely that it filled whatever room she was in and spilled o
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN
"SOMETIMES THE ONLY THING STANDING BETWEEN YOU AND FALLING APART COMPLETELY IS ONE PERSON WHO REFUSES TO LET YOU."SOFIAThe waiting room chair is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever sat in.I have been in it for forty minutes now and I feel every one of those minutes in my back, my shoulders, the stiff way I am holding myself because if I let my body relax even slightly I think I will slide straight onto the floor and not get back up.Marco got us both coffee at some point. Mine is sitting on the small table beside me untouched and cold now. I cannot imagine putting anything in my mouth. I can not imagine doing anything that normal people do in normal moments because this is not a normal moment and my daughter is behind those doors and the coffee can sit there until it turns to dust for all I care.Marco is a few seats down, his elbows on his knees, his phone in his hands. He has made several calls — quietly, efficiently, the way Marco does everything. Notifying people. Arranging
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX
“I NEED YOU KNOW MORE THAN EVER.”SOFIA.The nurse nods and takes us both in turn. A quick needle. A small vial. She disappears back through the doors with both samples.And then we wait.The waiting room is not full but it is not empty either. There are other people here with their own emergencies, their own terrible waits. A man with his head in his hands in the corner. An older woman telling her rosary beads beside the window. The particular suspended quality of a place where everyone is waiting for news that will change something.I sit in my chair and I stare at the double doors Isabella went through and I try to breathe evenly.It doesn't work.The crying starts quietly. The kind that doesn't announce itself — no sound at first, just my eyes suddenly full and then over and then my face is wet and I can't stop it and I don't have the resources to stop it anyway because everything I had was used up in that car ride keeping my voice steady for her.Marco puts his hand over mine bri
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER EIGHT
FORBIDDEN THINGS HAVE A SECRET CHARM. DANTEThe fight felt good.No, better than good. It felt right. Natural. Like slipping into a second skin that fits perfectly.I'm standing in the small room they use as a makeshift locker area, wrapping my knuckles with fresh bandages. My hands are already st
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER TWENTY
“DON’T RUN, YOU WILL ONLY DIE TIRED.”DANTE.He pulls out his phone, shows me a series of messages. "The Bratva made their move. Hit three of our shipments in the last forty-eight hours. Killed fifteen of our guys. Took one of our warehouses—the one with the European shipment."My blood, which was
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
“EVERY GIRL IS A DOLL. EITHER BARBIE OR ANABELLE.”SOFIA.Luca. It's Luca, grinning at me like he didn't just scare ten years off my life."What are you doing?" I press my hand to my chest, trying to calm my racing heart."I'm going with you." He settles into the seat like he belongs there, stretch
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
“IF YOU FALL I WILL ALWAYS BE THERE”__FLOOR.DANTE.Luca arrives like a hurricane in human form. I released a pre–stressed sigh, because I know just hou much chaos he is about to bring."Dante! Where the hell are you, man? This place is huge. What, Marco needs a castle to compensate for something?"
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