Serena Moretti POV
Seattle was the antithesis of New York.
New York was a cage of concrete, screaming sirens, and the metallic taste of blood disguised as old money.
Seattle, by contrast, was a world of gray skies and quiet solitude, smelling faintly of petrichor and roasted coffee beans.
It was the perfect place to disappear.
I ran a cloth over the counter of the small café I had leased using the cash liquidated from my jewelry sales.
The hand-painted sign above the door read The Palette.
It was small. It was humble. And for the first time in my life, it was mine.
Here, I wasn't Serena Vitiello.
I wasn't the barren, discarded wife of a Don.
I was just Serena.
A bell chimed overhead as the door pushed open, ushering in a gust of damp, chilling wind.
A man walked in.
He was nothing like the men I was accustomed to. He didn't wear a three-piece Italian suit that cost more than a mid-range car, nor did he carry the air of violence that usually accompanied such wealth.
Instead, he wore a paint-splattered flannel shirt and worn-out jeans that clung loosely to his frame. His hair was a messy shade of brown, darkened by the drizzle.
He looked soft.
Safe.
"We're not open yet," I said, my voice instinctively sharpening into a shield.
"I know," he replied. He offered a smile that actually reached his eyes-crinkling the corners in a way that felt disarmingly genuine. "I just saw the cat."
"The cat?"
I frowned and walked around the counter.
He pointed a calloused finger toward the window ledge outside.
A scrawny, bedraggled calico kitten was shivering violently against the glass, desperately trying to absorb the warmth radiating from inside.
It looked exactly how I felt.
Discarded.
Cold.
Desperate to find a way in.
I unlocked the door immediately.
The man knelt down, extending a hand slowly, telegraphing his movements.
He didn't grab.
He waited.
Unlike Dante, who took whatever he desired without asking, this man waited for permission.
"Here, little one," he murmured, his voice a low rumble.
The cat hesitated, trembling, before finally bumping its wet head against his fingers.
He scooped the creature up and brought it inside, shielding it from the wind with his body.
"Do you have a towel?" he asked.
I grabbed a clean dishrag from the back stack.
We dried the kitten together, working in a silent rhythm.
Then, our hands brushed.
I flinched, jerking my hand back as if his skin were a branding iron.
He noticed.
He didn't ask.
He simply shifted his position, stepping back to give me the physical space I clearly needed.
"I'm Liam, by the way," he said softly, keeping his focus entirely on the cat to make me feel less scrutinized. "I have the studio upstairs. I smell the coffee every morning and it's absolute torture that you aren't open yet."
"I'm..." I hesitated, the old name dying on my tongue. "Lena."
"Nice to meet you, Lena. And who is this?"
He looked down at the cat.
I looked at the tiny creature, battered by the storm but finally safe.
"Lucky," I whispered.
Liam smiled at me.
It was a gentle look, completely free of expectation or demand.
"Lucky," he repeated, testing the weight of the word. "It fits."
He placed his hand flat on the counter.
The cat tentatively placed a paw on his hand.
I watched them, feeling a strange, unfamiliar sensation unfurling in my chest.
It wasn't fear.
It wasn't pain.
It was the quiet hum of a heart starting to beat again.
