LUCAShe was quiet for a moment, searching my face. Then she nodded, tears welling in her eyes, but this time, they were good tears. “Yes.”I kissed her again, deeper this time, and she laughed against my lips. Leo came running over with grass stains on his knees, demanding juice, and Alina wiped her face quickly before scooping him into her lap. For a moment, everything felt easy.We sat together, sunlight burning my scalp while I watched the Leo and Maya run around the park. This was easy, I could do this. That was just before my phone rang. It was an unknown number and even before I answered, I could almost tell something was wrong. It was the prickle between my shoulders. It came and went, but it always came when there was danger. “Enjoying your day out, Luca?” a voice drawled on the other end.Every muscle in my body went rigid. “Who is this?”The man chuckled. “That’s a beautiful park, the boy and girl are cute. Shame if something happened to them.”My eyes shot to my men,
LUCADinner was loud. Louder than I’d have liked for someone who’d been shot a few days ago, but I let it happen because the kids deserved it.Maya was laughing at something on Pietro’s phone, the sound of her tiny giggles lighting the dining room.Bruno was stretched out under the table, tail thumping every so often like he was in a good mood. My plate was barely touched. Between the stitches in my side pulling every time I moved and the storm that was always brewing in the back of my head, food didn’t exactly feel like a priority. Alina sat next to me, hair tucked behind her ear, laughing as she spooned mashed potatoes onto Leo’s plate.She caught me staring and gave me this small, knowing smile that said she wasn’t fooled for a second by my silence.That’s when my phone rang. I didn’t even check the caller ID. Campbell’s voice reached my ears the moment I pressed answer.“Mila’s gone.”I leaned back, my fingers tightening around the fork I hadn’t realized I was still holding. “
ALINAHe was breathing, thank God, but his breaths were shallow, wet. My heart felt like it was splitting in two.“I’m fine,” he rasped, like the idiot he is, clutching at his side.“Shut up, you’re not fine! Stop talking!” My voice changed into a scream without warning, and I was shaking so hard I could barely see.“I am.”“Don’t you dare,” I snapped at him, pressing both hands against the wound. My palms were slick with his blood. He groaned, flinching under the pressure, and that sound nearly had me breaking into hives.Bella was still standing there in shock, her hands clamped over her mouth, the gun dangling uselessly in one hand. Her whole body shook as she whispered, “I didn’t mean to…oh my God, I didn’t mean to!”I tried to lift him, grabbing under his arms, but his weight was dead against me, too heavy, and I almost dropped him. Panic clawed up my throat. “Help! Somebody help me!” My scream was raw, desperate. “Pietro!”Footsteps hurried down the hall, and Pietro burst into
ALINABella’s hand trembled as she moved the gun from me to Luca. Her face was pale under the warm lights, a strange mix of grief and fury twisting her features until she barely looked like my mother anymore.“You killed him,” she spat. “How could you? After everything I did for you, for this family, this is how you repay me?” I didn’t look away from my mother's face, and it wasn't because I wasn’t terrified, because I was shaking in my shoes. Every nerve in my body was screaming at me to run, to duck, to scream for help. But Luca was beside me, and if there was a single thing I knew for certain, it was that I wasn’t going to let her hurt him.“Everything you did for me?” My hands curled into fists at my sides, nails digging into my palms. “You helped Matteo kill my father, Mama. I know what you did. You stood by and watched while he took everything from us, and I forgave you. I didn’t say a word. I swallowed it, even when it burned every time I looked at you. Don’t you dare stan
ALINAThe moment Pietro opened the door, Bella’s voice slammed into us like a gust of wind. She was screaming, and I'm not talking a calm yell, this was a full on shriek that could have woken the dead if there was any to be woken.“LUCA!” she shrieked. “How could you?!”She was standing in the middle of the living room, her hair wild, her face blotchy with fury. She looked like she hadn’t slept because her eyes were swollen, her makeup stained, and the silk of her blouse was wrinkled as though she'd fisted and wringed it all day. .“Bella,” Luca said calmly, his voice carrying that dangerous softness I’d learned to recognize. He leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed, perfectly still, like he had all the time in the world to let her scream. “You shouldn’t be here. What are you doing here?” She turned on him like she might claw his face off. “You killed him! You killed my husband, Luca! Two days! I was his wife for two days!” Her voice cracked, part fury, part hysteria, p
ALINALuca was asleep beside me, sprawled on his back with one arm over his chest, his features soft in a way that made him look younger. He looked almost peaceful, if not for the faint furrow still between his brows. Even in sleep, some part of him never rested.I reached out, brushing his hair off his forehead, and my chest squeezed. Yesterday’s events felt unreal, as though I was trapped a nightmare I couldn’t quite escape. Matteo was dead. Luca had killed him. The man who’d spent years hurting him, breaking him, now gone, by his own hand.I thought it would feel like relief, but there was still something dark hiding in Luca’s eyes when he’d come home last night. He’d said he was fine, but I knew he wasn’t. At least not completely.I slid carefully out of bed, pressing a kiss to his temple before slipping on one of his shirts. It was loose around me, brushing my thighs as I walked downstairs. Cooking was a distraction, and it was one I needed, besides, no one ever said no t