Chapter 5. A Promise in the Dark

Camila’s POV

Dinner was quiet at first.

Lucia sat beside me while Vittorio occupied the head of the table. Dante sat across from us, barely touching his food. The three of them spoke about business, the Moretti Syndicate, and people I had never met.

I listened without saying anything.

My thoughts kept returning to my brothers.

I had never spent a full day away from them. Alejandro had always been the first person I ran to when Father became angry. Gabriel could make me laugh when I wanted to cry. Matteo, Tomas, and Nico had each found their own way of protecting me.

The thought of not seeing them again made my chest ache.

I placed my fork beside my plate.

“Can I see my brothers?”

Dante’s eyes immediately lifted toward me.

The coldness in his stare made my breath catch. For a moment, I could not speak.

“No.”

The answer came quickly, with no hesitation.

My heart sank.

“Please,” I said softly. “I just want to see them.”

Vittorio let out a low chuckle.

Dante’s expression tightened.

“What is so funny?” he asked.

Vittorio leaned back in his chair. “You bring home a girl, call her your fiancée, and now she is already making demands.”

“I am not making demands,” I said.

Vittorio’s smile disappeared.

“How dare you speak to me like that?”

His voice thundered through the dining room.

I flinched so hard that my fork slipped from my fingers.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

I lowered my gaze and placed my hands in my lap.

Vittorio pushed away from the table.

“That is enough. She can spend the night in the lower level.”

My blood turned cold.

The Moretti cellar.

I had never been inside it, but I had heard enough to know what happened there. Vittorio’s voice carried through the mansion whenever someone displeased him. The people who were sent downstairs never returned looking the same.

“No,” I whispered.

Vittorio walked toward me.

“Stand up.”

I pressed my back against the chair.

“Please.”

His hand closed around my wrist.

The moment his fingers tightened, the dining room disappeared.

I was no longer sitting beneath the Moretti chandelier. I was back in my father’s house, trapped beneath the same kind of grip, waiting for the pain to begin.

“Please don’t,” I begged.

Vittorio pulled me from the chair.

Then Dante stood.

His chair struck the floor behind him.

He crossed the room with heavy, controlled steps and grabbed his father’s wrist.

“Let her go.”

Vittorio stared at him. “You are interfering in my house?”

“She is going to be my wife.”

Dante’s grip tightened.

Vittorio’s face twisted with pain.

“If you touch her again, I will make sure you never use that hand.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I am promising you.”

Dante leaned closer, his voice dropping into something far more dangerous.

“You think you are the Devil because people fear you. They only call me that because I am worse.”

Vittorio groaned as Dante forced him to release me.

I stumbled backward and held my wrist against my chest.

Dante did not look at me immediately. His attention remained fixed on his father.

Then he turned.

“I’ll take you to see your brothers tomorrow after school.”

I nodded quickly.

“Thank you.”

I left the dining room before either man could change his mind.

I hurried upstairs and closed my bedroom door. My hands were shaking so badly that I struggled to lock it.

Muffled shouting echoed from downstairs.

I could hear Vittorio’s angry voice and Dante’s lower response. I could not make out the words, but I knew the argument was about me.

I climbed into bed and pulled the pillow over my ears.

For years, I had wanted to disappear.

Not die. Not exactly.

I had only wanted to escape the fear, the shouting, and the constant feeling that something terrible was waiting around the corner.

Lately, however, disappearing had become harder to imagine.

Maybe because I was now trapped in another violent family.

Maybe because Dante had stepped between me and his father.

I did not know whether that made me safer or simply placed me between two different kinds of danger.

Eventually, I forced myself out of bed and completed my homework. By the time I turned off the light, my eyes felt heavy.

I woke sometime during the night.

A voice drifted through the hallway.

“You will let her see her brothers, or I promise you will regret it.”

Dante.

I sat up and pulled the blanket beneath my chin.

He was standing outside my room with his phone pressed to his ear. His voice was quiet, but the anger in it was unmistakable.

“I always keep my promises.”

He ended the call and turned toward my doorway.

Our eyes met.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said.

“It’s okay.”

I kept the blanket close to my face. Dante’s expression was cold, but something else lingered beneath it. Determination, perhaps.

“That was your father,” he said.

I remained silent.

Dante stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

“If he ever does anything to you, you tell me.”

I nodded.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

His gaze remained on me.

He knew I would not volunteer information. He had seen how quickly I had stopped speaking when his father raised his voice. He understood what fear looked like because he carried enough of it himself.

An uncomfortable silence settled between us.

I looked at the blanket instead of him.

“Your father…”

I stopped.

Dante’s expression changed.

“My father what?”

“Nothing.”

“Camila.”

His voice held a warning.

I pulled the blanket higher. “It was stupid. It does not matter.”

He reached down and pulled the blanket away from my face.

“Tell me.”

I swallowed.

“Your father said he would replace mine.”

Dante stared at me.

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.” My voice shook. “Maybe he only meant he wanted to act like a father to me.”

Dante’s face hardened.

“If I find out you are lying to me, I will deal with it.”

“Deal with it?”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

I should have stayed quiet.

Instead, I looked up at him. “Are you going to punish me too?”

The room became completely silent.

Dante stood upright.

“Get ready for school.”

“That’s it?”

“I am dropping you off and picking you up.”

He walked to the door.

“Be ready in the morning.”

Then he left.

The moment the door closed, I pressed a hand against my chest.

Every time Dante came near me, it became difficult to breathe. He did not need to touch me to make me nervous. His presence alone was enough.

The next morning, I dressed slowly.

I took longer than necessary because I did not want anyone at school to see me arriving with Dante. I did not want rumors. I did not want questions.

Most of all, I did not want anyone to know that the man I was marrying had been waiting outside my house.

When I finally reached the car, Dante was already behind the wheel.

I climbed into the passenger seat.

For several minutes, neither of us spoke.

“Do you always work?” I asked.

“Most of the time.”

“Doesn’t it get boring?”

“If it were boring, I would not do it.”

His answer sounded like a warning.

I glanced at him. “So you could leave work right now if you wanted?”

“Not today.”

“Why is today so important?”

“Nothing.”

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

I studied his face. “Are you going to kill someone?”

I meant it as a joke.

Dante did not smile.

“I kill people. That is what I do.”

I turned toward him. “I do not blame you.”

One of his eyebrows lifted.

“You were raised in this world too,” I continued. “You know what it is like. Sometimes killing is simply part of surviving.”

Dante looked at me as if he had not expected that answer.

The hard lines of his face softened slightly.

For the first time, he looked less like the Devil everyone feared and more like a man who was tired of being treated like a monster.

The car pulled up outside the school.

“You’re late,” he said.

“I know.”

I opened the door.

“I did it on purpose.”

A faint smile touched my lips.

Dante raised an eyebrow. “I’ll be here at four.”

“I know.”

“Do not be late.”

I stepped out of the car and closed the door.

As I walked toward the school entrance, I glanced over my shoulder.

Dante was still watching me through the windshield.

Tomorrow, I would see my brothers.

But first, I had to survive the rest of the day knowing that the Devil would be waiting for me when school ended.