Semua Bab HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS): Bab 81 - Bab 84

"SOME GOODBYES CARRY THE WEIGHT OF EVERYTHING THAT WAS NEVER SAID."SOFIAI am in the kitchen when I hear Dante come downstairs.Not just Dante. Nico and Luca too. Their voices are low in the hallway, the particular energy of men who are preparing to go somewhere and have already switched into that focused operational mode that means the decision is made and everything now is just logistics.My stomach drops before I even know why.Marco comes in from the sitting room and we look at each other briefly and then Dante comes through the kitchen doorway and the way he is dressed tells me everything before he opens his mouth. Not the casual clothes he wears around the house. Not the expensive but relaxed way he dresses when he is just present. This is deliberate. Suit jacket. Controlled. The way Dante dresses when he is walking into something that requires the full version of himself.He looks at Marco first."I'm going to New York," he says. "And then Colombia. The succession vote is clos

"THE CAGE DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE BARS. SOMETIMES IT JUST LOOKS LIKE A MARRIAGE."SOFIAI need to tell him.I need to tell him right now before he gets on that plane and disappears to the other side of the world and I am left here again with something enormous and no way to reach him.I am not doing this again.I am not carrying this alone again.I go downstairs quickly, my phone already in my hand, already pulling up his name. My heart is going faster than normal and my hands are not entirely steady but I am moving and that feels better than sitting still with this.I press call as I reach the bottom of the stairs.It rings.Once.Twice.Three times.My stomach is tight. I stand in the hallway and listen to it ring and count the rings and tell myself he will pick up, he has to pick up, he cannot be on the plane already it has not been long enough—The ringing stops.A click."Sofia—"His voice. Just those two syllables and I feel my whole body exhale with relief."Dante," I say quickly,