I don't make empty threats.
Dante knew that. For the first time, a flicker of genuine panic flashed in his eyes.
Just as he let go of Isabella and started toward me, she let out a sob and collapsed.
"Dante, her heart! This kind of stress… you know she can't take it!" one of his Capos warned, his brow furrowed in concern.
Jarred back to his senses, Dante immediately spun around to help Isabella.
When he looked up again, his face was a mask of cold impatience. "Nora."
"Stop this. You know Bella is my sister."
There it was again. That old, tired line.
"Then from now on, you are no longer my husband."
"Take good care of your Bella, Dante."
I gave a mocking smile, twisted the wedding ring from my finger, and let it drop to the marble floor before turning on my heel.
The moment the door clicked shut behind me, I heard Isabella's triumphant sobs.
"Dante, you have to go after her."
"What will we do if Nora really leaves the family?"
I could just imagine the Made Men consoling her.
"That Nora Moretti… you think she actually has the guts to leave?"
"Her father's dead, she has no one left. Without the Morettis, she's nothing!"
The clinking of champagne flutes was grating. The music swelled again, as if I had never been there.
I strode down the long corridor, my heels sinking into the velvet carpet, until I reached the deserted lake on the manor grounds. Only then did the tears finally fall.
After all, I’m only human.
I had once loved him desperately. No matter how final my words had been, the hollow ache in my chest was undeniable.
But once the tears dried, my heart hardened into a shell of steel.
I pulled out my phone and called my former mentor, Professor Miles.
"Professor, that Middle East reconstruction project you mentioned…"
"I'll take it."
