So he had built that place. An endless, dreamlike sky filled with stars, just for me.
I still remembered that night clearly. Standing under that artificial sky, the stars glowing softly above us, Dante had looked at me with warmth in his eyes.
"Bianca," he had said gently, "remember this. This sky belongs only to you, just like my feelings."
We had spent twenty years together, slowly turning that place into something magical, something that felt like a world of our own. The compound had a thousand rooms, a thousand locked doors, but that one space had been ours. Not the Family's. Not the business. Ours.
And somewhere along the way, my heart had quietly begun to lean toward him.
But every time I thought I had made my choice, Nico would interfere, stirring things up, making me hesitate, making me question everything all over again.
As for now…
They had found a new "rose" to admire and had long forgotten about me, the fading moon.
But it didn't matter anymore. None of it did.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself, and turned to leave.
In the end, I didn't want either of them anymore.
Suddenly, Serena reached out and grabbed my wrist. Her long nails dug into my skin, leaving thin red scratches behind.
"Why won't you listen to me?" she asked, her voice trembling as if she were the one being wronged. "Are you looking down on me?"
The sharp pain made me flinch instinctively. Without thinking, I shook her hand off with force.
Serena staggered backward, falling gracefully as if it were part of a performance. "Dante! Brother! Save me!" she cried out.
Dante's face filled with panic as he rushed forward, catching her and pulling her into his arms protectively.
Before I could even react, his hand came across my face.
The sound was sharp and sudden.
At the same time, Nico rushed in, his voice filled with anger. "Bianca, why do you always pick on Serena?"
"Don't forget," he continued harshly, "if the DeLuca family hadn't taken you in back then, you would've been nothing but a homeless orphan digging through garbage!"
"Not only are you ungrateful, but you repay us with cruelty!"
A loud buzzing filled my ears, drowning out everything else.
This was the first time in my life I had ever been struck like that.
In that moment, it felt as if my entire world shattered into pieces.
The compound had gone silent around us. Not the comfortable silence of a house at rest but the held-breath silence of men who had heard the sound of skin against skin and knew better than to witness what came next. Somewhere beyond the terrace, a soldier shifted his weight and looked away.
Dante seemed to freeze as well, as if only now realizing what he had done. His expression shifted slightly. "Are you alright? I…"
"I'm fine," I said quietly, wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth. "I don't blame you."
I truly didn't.
I took that slap as repayment for everything the DeLuca family had given me over the years. Every meal at their table, every roof over my head since my father's crew collapsed and left us with nothing.
From this moment on, we owed each other nothing. There were no more debts between us.
But Nico stepped forward, blocking my path firmly. He refused to let me leave.
"Stay here," he said coldly. "You're not going anywhere until you apologize to Serena."
The fierce look in his eyes was nothing like the boy who used to follow me around, calling me "sister" in a soft, affectionate voice.
But I knew exactly what he was capable of.
Once, there had been a boy at school who harassed me. Nico had secretly retaliated against him, while Dante handled the consequences behind the scenes. Between the two of them, favors were called in, pressure applied through channels no teenager should have had access to. The boy's entire family ended up leaving the neighborhood, relocated by a kind of quiet force that never left fingerprints.
I had never imagined that one day, that same ruthlessness would be turned against me.
Looking at the smug expression on Serena's face, I swallowed all the words I wanted to say.
There was nothing left for me to fear.
Even if they hadn't forced me out, I had already decided to leave.
Nico was still seething, his anger written plainly across his face, his jaw clenched as if he could barely contain himself. His right thumb cracked against the side of his hand once, sharply, and I felt the threat of it in my chest.
However, Dante, who seemed to feel a faint trace of guilt, raised a hand to stop him. He smoothed an invisible crease from the front of his tie before speaking, his tone softened slightly, though it still carried an air of authority. "Forget it," he said. "I overreacted earlier. Don't take it to heart."
He paused briefly before adding, almost as if offering compensation, "When I get back, I'll bring you your favorite chestnut cakes."
