MasukRomeoThe glass of scotch sitting on my desk had been there for nearly three hours. But I had not touched it. The drink was there out of habit more than desire.I did not want the numbness. Numbness was a luxury I had not earned.Leaning back in my leather office chair, I pressed the heels of my hands against my burning eyes and exhaled slowly. Exhaustion had settled deep into my bones. There was a relentless ache pulsed behind my temples, sharp enough to make every heartbeat feel like a hammer striking against my skull.For seven days, I had barely slept.Two hours a night, if I was lucky.I had confined myself almost entirely to the medical wing and my office, existing on little more than black coffee and the crushing weight of thoughts I could not escape. Every hour had blurred into the next until time itself had become meaningless. There was only Isabella’s recovery, Irene’s exhaustion and the growing certainty that I was finally being forced to face truths I had spent years a
IreneHearing Romeo’s voice crack open on my name, my jaw tightened so hard the muscles ached. The raw, unfiltered desperation in his eyes was too much to look at, too heavy to carry in the bright afternoon sun. I immediately looked away, forcing my entire posture into a rigid, unyielding line.What the hell was he trying to do? Why was he apologizing now?I crossed my arms tightly over my chest. "There is nothing to apologize for, Dr. Galante," I said.It was a lie, of course. A desperate, exhausting lie to cover up the devastating heartbreak I could feel pooling in my own eyes. I couldn't let him see it. Not here. Not with Isabella sitting between us. "You are just doing your job." I added."You know that is not what I mean," Romeo pushed gently.He didn't back down. Instead, he took a half-step around the bed, ignoring the fact that his sister-in-law was sitting right there, watching us with wide, confused eyes. He was closing the distance I was risking everything to maintain."Do
IreneSeven days can change the entire landscape of a house, but it hadn’t done a single thing to clear the exhaustion anchoring itself inside my bones.For a week, I had lived in a blurred loop of split-second naps, lukewarm coffee, and a rotating shift of keeping Isabella grounded. My hair was thrown up in a claw clip, my clothes were wrinkled.But today was a milestone.“Your vitals are exceptionally strong today, Isabella,” Romeo’s voice broke the quiet hum of the intensive medical suite. He unclipped her chart, his clinical tone perfectly practiced, though the dark circles under his eyes mirrored my own. “The internal bruising is healing beautifully, and your blood volume has finally stabilized.”I stood near the door, arms crossed, watching him slide his pen into the pocket of his navy scrubs.“Which means…” Romeo continued, offering Isabella a small, genuine smile. “You have officially graduated from the intensive medical suite. We are moving you to the south wing today. The ro
IreneI woke before the sun had fully claimed the sky.Dawn had only just begun to press itself against the slatted blinds of the medical room, spilling a muted, gray light that softened the edges of everything it touched. My neck ached when I shifted, muscles stiff from having fallen asleep curled at the edge of the narrow mattress rather than properly lying down. For a few suspended seconds, I existed in that fragile space between awareness and forgetting, where nothing had meaning yet and the world had not quite decided what it was.Then the heart monitor beside the bed broke through that illusion with its steady, indifferent rhythm, and I remembered where I was.The medical room. Isabella. The night that had swallowed everything whole.I stretched my legs slowly, anticipating the bite of cold air against my skin, but it never came. Instead, there was warmth. I paused, unsettled by the sensation, and looked down.My heavy dark trench coat, which I clearly remembered loosening ar
RomeoThe medical wing was the quietest part of the estate. But tonight, the silence in the room felt almost suffocating.I pushed the door open without making a sound, stepping into the dim light. The steady, rhythmic hum of the monitors was the only proof that the world was still turning.I moved to the side of the bed, my eyes immediately scanning the screens. Habit. Duty. It was the only armor I had left that still fit perfectly. Isabella’s vitals were completely stable. Her breathing was even. In sleep, the terror and confusion that had haunted her for the last five days were gone. She looked exactly like the woman who had held our family together.I adjusted her IV line, making sure the drip was steady, before stepping back.It was only then that I looked toward the foot of the bed.Irene was there.She hadn’t gone back to her room. She was curled up on the edge of the mattress, her knees pulled toward her chest, deeply and completely asleep.For a long time, I just stood there
Irene The Galante estate had survived bullets, betrayals, and rival syndicates. It had survived blood in the halls and fire in its foundations. But nothing had ever hollowed it out the way silence did now. Five days. Five days since Isabella opened her eyes in the sterile light of the medical wing and looked at us like we were strangers standing in the wrong version of her life. The emergency delivery had gone as planned, in the way nothing ever truly goes as planned in a house like this. The baby lived. Isabella lived. But when she finally regained consciousness, something inside her mind had closed like a door that refused to open again. Retrograde amnesia. Eight years of her life gone without warning, without explanation, without mercy. She did not remember the wedding. She did not remember Dante. She did not remember the wars that had turned this estate into a fortress or the compromises that had kept it standing. She did not remember the life she had built inside vio
Isabella’s POVI was having a nightmare.A nightmare of Dante leaving me. A nightmare of the world without him. A nightmare of Elara asking me questions. I felt like I was drowning until I forced my eyes to open.I breathed hard and swept my hand across the Egyptian cotton sheets, seeking warmth.
Dante’s POVI felt her stiffen next to me. Her breathing stopped.I looked down at her. Her face had gone pale, the blood draining away so fast she looked like a statue. She was staring straight ahead. Her eyes were wide with a terror I had never seen in her before."Bella?" I whispered as I leaned
Isabella’s POVLorenzo stiffened beside me. But he didn't leave my hand, instead his grip on my hand tightened. "Did he say... Galante?"I didn't answer. I couldn't.At the front of the room, the man in the black suit turned.The applause from the crowd was polite, confused, and rippling through th
Isabella’s POVFor a moment, he stilled and silence filled the space.“No?” He repeated as his hand dropped from my waist slowly. His eyes looked like they had been shattered. He began to step back, trying to rebuild the wall between us.But I didn't let him.Without wasting a moment, I stepped for







