The ride home was quiet, almost suffocating in its stillness. The city lights flickered past the window in blurred streaks, but neither of us spoke. Luca kept his eyes on the road, his hands steady on the wheel.
When the car finally stopped, I reached for the door handle, ready to leave without a word.
His voice stopped me.
I paused, my hand still on the handle.
"You really sure you want a dissolution?"
I didn't hesitate.
I nodded.
I didn't even hesitate when I gave my answer.
Luca looked straight at me for a long second, as if searching for something in my expression. Then, without saying anything, he opened the car door, stepped out, and walked around to my side. The night air was cool, brushing faintly against my skin as he stopped right in front of me.
He didn't joke. He didn't soften his tone.
"Then maybe…" he said, his voice low and steady, "you should consider me instead."
I froze where I stood.
That wasn't what I had expected. Not from Luca. Not from him of all people.
For a moment, my mind went completely blank. I wasn't trying to get back at Dante. I wasn't trying to make anyone jealous or prove anything. I wasn't even angry enough for that anymore. I was just… tired. A kind of exhaustion that went deeper than anything I had felt back when I was eighteen, still naive enough to believe in fairytales and forever. Back then, loving Dante had felt like everything. Now, all I wanted was something simple. Quiet. Peace.
So I laughed it off, turning it into a joke before it could become anything real.
"Sure," I said lightly, waving it away as if it meant nothing. "Once I'm free of the Family, I'll come find you."
Then I walked away without looking back.
Not long after I got home, my phone buzzed in my hand. I glanced down.
A message from Luca.
[I'm done waiting.]
The words were simple, but they carried a weight that lingered.
I stepped out onto the balcony almost without thinking, the cool night air wrapping around me. When I looked down, his car was still parked below on the private drive, just past the iron gate. He hadn't left.
Luca was leaning casually against the side of it, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a cigarette between his fingers. The faint orange glow lit up briefly as he took a drag.
It caught me off guard.
It was the first time I had ever seen him smoke.
I had always heard that Luca came from the Valente outfit, old blood with ties to the military before they turned to the law. Discipline was carved into bone in that family. Reserved, controlled, almost cold in the way he carried himself. His background wasn't any less formidable than the Falcones'. If anything, it rivaled them. A consigliere-grade mind with enough connections to broker peace between crews that wanted each other dead.
And yet, there he was, standing alone in the dark outside a Falcone compound, smoking like he had nowhere else to be.
Maybe he sensed me watching, because after a moment, he slowly lifted his head.
Our eyes met across the distance.
He exhaled a thin stream of smoke, the haze drifting into the night air. Then, almost imperceptibly, the corner of his lips curved into a faint, crooked smile. It wasn't playful. It wasn't mocking. It felt… resolute.
Without another moment, he straightened, flicked the cigarette aside, got into his car, and drove off.
I stood there, watching his taillights fade past the estate wall and into the darkness until they disappeared completely.
To my surprise, something inside me shifted, just slightly, like a quiet ripple beneath still water.
By the time Dante finally came home, the sky had already begun to pale with the first hint of dawn.
The moment he stepped through the door, his expression twisted into a frown. His nose wrinkled in obvious displeasure.
"Adriana, can you try acting like a decent woman for once?" he snapped without preamble. "You stink of smoke. It's disgusting. Quit that habit."
He had always hated it when I smoked.
But I hadn't always been like this. I only picked it up after we were bound together, after the warmth between us had faded into silence, into cold indifference, into a life that felt more like routine than anything real. Days blurred into each other. Conversations became scarce. I needed something, anything, to break through that suffocating stillness.
Even if it was just the sharp burn of nicotine in my lungs.
I said nothing. I simply stubbed the cigarette out and walked past him toward the bathroom.
He followed immediately.
"Did you hear me?" he demanded, irritation already creeping into his voice.
Of course he was irritated. I had always revolved around him, always responded, always complied. I had never pushed back, never ignored him. Now that I wasn't reacting the way he expected, it unsettled him.
"I heard you," I replied, my tone flat, almost absent.
Dante paused, clearly thrown off.
Through the mirror, I could see him watching me closely, his brows drawing together. He was still wearing his coat, the signet ring on his right hand catching the bathroom light. His thumb moved once over it, a slow rotation, then stopped.
