All Chapters of The Don’s Seventh Broken Promise: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

It was Luca’s seventh birthday.His father, Dante Vitale, had once again given the day to Lucia’s son.The night before, Luca had spent two hours at his little desk making a birthday card. He pasted a small gold target on the front and wrote in crooked letters:For Daddy.Dante had promised to take him to the Vitale family’s private range for his first safety training session. It would not involve real shooting. It was only an observation class, the course every family child had to complete before entering the training area. To Luca, it was the birthday gift his father had promised with his own mouth.That morning, Luca changed into white sportswear and sat in the living room with safety glasses in his lap. Every few minutes, Luca looked toward the door, his little body sitting straighter each time he heard a car outside.“Mommy, was that Daddy?”I answered the same question over and over, even though my own heart already knew the answer.“Mommy, when is Daddy coming to pick us up?”B

Chapter 2

Dante did not come home that night.The next morning, I took Luca’s passport, school forms, and medical records from the safe. He stood beside the desk, staring at the school emergency contact form.Dante’s name was listed first.Luca looked at it until his eyes turned red, then touched the number with one finger.“Mommy, can you take Daddy off?”“If I get sick at school, he won’t come anyway. The teacher can call you.”I printed a new form, removed Dante’s number, and left mine with the number of our family doctor in Sicily. Luca watched in silence.Later that morning, I went to the private airport. Our flight to Sicily was scheduled for five days later. The house, doctor, and school were ready. Dante always said New York was Luca’s home, yet Luca had spent most of his life waiting to be chosen inside it.The wedding planner called on the drive back.“Madam, the Donna ceremony is in three days. The flowers, seating plan, and dinner menu are confirmed. Do you need any changes?”It woul

Chapter 3

The day before we left, Dante came home without warning, carrying Luca’s favorite chocolate cake with a sugar figure of a family of three on top. Luca sat by the window with a book in his lap. Luca looked up.For years, that single sound would have been enough to make him run across the room.This time, he only closed his book.Dante stopped in the doorway. Guilt tightened his expression as he studied his quiet son, seemingly unsure how to approach him.He set the cake down and gently stroked Luca’s hair.“Daddy came home to make up your birthday.”Luca stiffened but did not move away. He had been disappointed too many times, yet he was still seven, and the smallest tenderness from his father was enough to revive the hope he had tried to bury.“My birthday already passed.”“Then we’ll celebrate again.” Dante crouched before him. “Tell me where you want to go.”“Can you take me to safety training? You promised.”Dante hesitated.“The compound has an open demonstration today. It will be

Chapter 4

Luca’s fever kept climbing.He curled against me, his forehead burning while his cold fingers clutched my sleeve.“Mommy, am I going to die?”Terror closed around my chest, but I forced it down. Luca had no one else, and I could not fall apart in front of him.I held him tighter and kept my voice steady.“No. I’m getting you out.”The chapel had no signal, and the door was locked from outside. No one answered. I dragged a brass candlestick from the altar and smashed the narrow glass panel in the side door. Glass cut my wrist, but I reached through, found the latch, and unlocked it.Luca could no longer walk.I carried him through the servants’ corridor on the east side of the estate. Most of the staff had gone to the security compound. The guards who remained saw the blood on my sleeve and Luca’s flushed face, then stepped aside.Marco was waiting by the service gate.He had worked for me for years and was the only person on the estate who knew I planned to leave. The moment he saw Luc

Chapter 5

Luca’s fever had not fully broken when our plane landed in Sicily.Julian Moretti examined him before we left the cabin. Once he confirmed Luca’s temperature was no longer rising, Marco drove us to the villa by the sea, a house my mother had left me.Luca fell asleep soon after we carried him into the bedroom. I stayed beside him until Julian noticed that the wound on my wrist had opened again.“If you leave this any longer, it may become infected.”He cut away the bloodstained bandage and cleaned the wound without asking what had happened in the chapel or why I had left New York.The antiseptic made my arm jerk.Julian paused. “Does it hurt?”I looked toward Luca.“As long as he is safe, it doesn’t matter.”A few hours later, Luca woke. The unfamiliar ceiling frightened him, but when he saw me beside the bed, his grip on the blanket loosened.“Mommy.”“I’m here.”Julian brought fever medicine and water. Luca frowned at the smell but accepted the cup.Julian placed a blood orange candy

Chapter 6

Lucia arrived at the estate while Dante was still sitting in the room Serena and Luca had once shared.The closets were empty. Only the black gift box remained on the desk. Dante held the range badge in one hand, his thumb moving over the words engraved on the back.Lucia stopped in the doorway and softened her voice.“Dante, try not to worry. Serena was probably angry when she left with Luca. Once she calms down, she will come back.”He did not look at her.She moved closer.“Luca still had a fever, and she took him on a long flight without telling you. That was dangerous. She should have considered what the journey might do to him.”Dante finally raised his eyes.The look made Lucia stop. Her own eyes reddened at once.“I am not blaming Serena. I am worried about Luca, and I know how much this is hurting you.”Nico ran in from the hallway and noticed the gift box.“A range badge.”He reached for it, but Dante closed the lid.Nico frowned.“Uncle Dante, I want that one too. You always

Chapter 7

Dante found us in Sicily a month after we left New York.That afternoon, Luca sat at the terrace table, practicing how to wrap a bandage around a stuffed bear. Julian watched beside him.“Too loose,” Julian said.Luca unwound it and tried again.“Better?”Julian checked the knot and nodded. “Much better.”Luca smiled and reached for the first aid kit Julian had given him. In New York, he had always watched Dante’s face before asking a question. Here, he asked as many as he wanted and simply tried again when he made a mistake.I stood by the open doors when a black car stopped outside the stone wall.Dante stepped out.He had lost weight. Dark stubble covered his jaw, and exhaustion showed in his bloodshot eyes. The moment he saw me, he crossed the courtyard and pulled me into his arms before I could retreat.“Serena. I finally found you.”I pushed him away.“You should not have come.”“I came to take you and Luca home.”“This is our home now.”The answer seemed to strike him harder tha

Chapter 8

I reached for the door, but Dante caught the frame before I could close it.“Serena, don’t do this.”His voice was hoarse, yet his hand stayed firm against the wood.“Let go.”“I can change.”He stepped across the threshold and pulled me into his arms before I could move back. His grip was so tight that pain shot through the wound on my wrist.“I can hand New York over to my deputies and move here. We do not have to hold the wedding. Luca does not have to enter the family business. I will give up whatever you ask.”His breathing was uneven against my ear.“Just do not leave me outside your life.”Warm moisture touched my shoulder.Dante Vitale had taken bullets without showing pain. Now he held me as though letting go would make Luca and me disappear again.For one moment, I froze.For ten years, I had waited for him to turn back, to admit Luca had been hurt, to choose us when Lucia called, and to give us a place he did not ask us to hide.Now he was finally afraid of losing us.It was

Chapter 9

Dante stopped just beyond the open gate and finally made no attempt to come closer.He looked at Luca, then lowered himself until they were at eye level.“Luca, Daddy was wrong.”Luca did not cry or ask why Dante had chosen someone else again. He only watched him quietly.“I do not blame you for being busy.”A faint trace of hope entered Dante’s eyes.“Mommy told me you have to protect people and handle family problems. If you truly cannot come home, I can wait.”The hope vanished when Luca continued.“But you had time for Nico.”His fingers tightened around mine.“You promised to take me to training on my birthday. Then you said the range was not for children, but you took Nico there yourself.”Dante’s mouth moved before any words came.“I was wrong.”“You always say there will be a next time.”Luca looked down at his shoes.“I waited a lot. I do not want to wait anymore.”Dante stayed crouched before him, his eyes red, yet he had no answer that could repair what Luca had said.Luca m

Chapter 10

The morning after Dante left, Luca carried his first aid kit onto the terrace.Julian was reviewing his temperature chart when Luca asked, “Can I become a doctor when I grow up?”“You can, but it takes years of study.”“I can do that.”Luca arranged the bandages into neat rows.“Doctors save people when they are sick. Then they do not have to be afraid or wait for someone to unlock a door.”I rested a hand on his shoulder. More than a month had passed, but part of him was still trapped behind that door.“You can become anything you choose.”He looked at Julian. “Then I will become a better doctor than Uncle Julian.”Julian handed him the stethoscope. “Learn to use this first.”Luca laughed.From then on, Julian taught him simple first aid whenever he visited. He never dismissed Luca or promised a lesson he could not give. Luca learned to measure blood pressure, record temperatures, and perform chest compressions on a training mannequin.His nightmares slowly stopped. Eventually, he sle

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