The silence between them lasted for days. It was the kind of silence that wasn’t just quiet but suffocating, thick enough to choke on. Every corner of the mansion echoed with it. als were eaten at opposite ends of the long dining table. etings with his n were conducted without her present. And when they crossed paths in the hallways, neither spoke.
But silence could never last forever.
She found him in the study late one evening, standing before the fireplace, the glow painting his face in shifting golds and shadows. He looked carved from stone, a statue of power and restraint, yet there was sothing brittle about him, sothing ready to crack.
"You’ve been avoiding ," she said, her voice quieter than she intended.
His eyes flicked up from the fire. "And you’ve been avoiding too."
The sharpness in his tone made her flinch, but she pressed on. "We can’t keep doing this, Luca. We can’t keep tearing each other apart in silence."
He set his glass of whiskey down on the mantel, the sound sharp in the quiet. "Maybe silence is safer."
"Safer?" She laughed bitterly. "That’s your answer to everything. Lock in silence, lock in this house, lock out of your truths. That’s not safety, Luca, that’s a prison."
His gaze darkened. "And what do you think happens if I open the door? If I let you into the ugliness of this world, into the secrets I keep buried? You think you’re strong enough for that? You think loving or whatever this is, will protect you from what’s out there?"
"I don’t need protection from the truth," she snapped. "I need protection from lies. From you deciding what I can or can’t handle. From you pretending this... whatever is between us doesn’t matter when I know it does."
He turned from her, shoulders tense. For a long mont, the only sound was the crackle of the fire. Then he said, "You don’t know what you’re asking."
"Then tell ." She stepped closer, her heart racing. "Tell , Luciano Deluca. For once in your life, stop hiding and trust ."
His laugh was bitter, hollow. "Trust. You want my trust after everything? After accusing of using you, of parading you around like a pawn, of betraying you every ti another woman walks into the room?"
Her chest tightened. "I accused you because you won’t let in! Because you leave to guess, to wonder, to doubt. You build these walls, and then you’re furious when I can’t see over them."
He finally turned, his eyes blazing. "And you, what about your secrets? You think I don’t know you’ve been hiding things too? Whispered conversations on the phone. Questions you don’t answer. Doors you close when I walk in. Don’t stand there and act like I’m the only one guilty of keeping things from us."
Her mouth opened, then closed. He was right. She had been keeping secrets, the hints of her parentage, the whispers about her true bloodline. The things she wasn’t ready to tell him, because she didn’t know if she could trust him with them.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she forced her voice steady. "I’m hiding because I’m afraid of you, Luca. Afraid of what you’ll do if you find out who I really am. Afraid of how much I need you, when I swore I’d never give my heart to a man who could crush it with one choice."
His jaw worked, muscle twitching. "And what if I already know who you are?"
The words landed like a blow. She stared at him, stunned. "What?"
He stepped closer, his presence overwhelming, every inch of him radiating the truth he had been holding back. "You think I don’t have eyes everywhere? That I don’t know about the whispers, the hints of your bloodline, the reason the other families have started circling like vultures? I’ve known since the beginning. And I kept it from you."
Her knees felt weak. "Why?"
"Because once you knew," he said, voice breaking with a rare honesty, "you would never look at the sa way again."
Her chest heaved, pain slicing through her. "So you lied. You lied to my face every day, all while you knew the truth about ."
He reached for her hand, but she pulled away like his touch burned. "I lied to protect you," he insisted. "I lied because the second you knew, you beca more than just my wife in na. You beca a target in a war you don’t fully understand."
She shook her head, tears spilling freely now. "No. You lied because you don’t trust . Because in your world, I’ll never be your equal, just soone to keep in the dark while you pull the strings."
The fury in his eyes dimd, replaced by sothing far more dangerous: desperation. "That’s not true. You are my equal. You’ve been from the start. You’re the only one who can stand against , who can call out, who can make feel like a man instead of just the Don. And that terrifies ."
Her heart clenched. God help her, part of her believed him. But belief didn’t erase betrayal.
She backed away, shaking her head. "I don’t know if I can forgive you for this. For knowing who I am and keeping it from . For letting question myself while you held the answers all along."
Luca’s voice cracked as he stepped forward, the mask of the Don slipping entirely. "Then what do I have to do? Tell , and I’ll do it. I can’t lose you not now, not when you’re the only thing in this world that feels real."
Her breath hitched. She wanted to believe him, wanted to throw herself into his arms and let the storm pass. But the fracture between them was too deep to be healed by promises alone.
"You already lost ," she whispered.
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Luca froze, as though struck by a bullet. His eyes searched hers, desperate, but she turned away.
This ti, it was her hand on the door. Her heart scread to stay, but her pride and the shattered trust between them forced her to walk out.
When the door clicked shut behind her, she leaned against the wall, sobbing silently into her hands. Inside, she knew he was standing by the fire, alone, drowning in the silence they had built together.
And though part of her longed to go back, she also knew sothing fundantal had broken that night. Sothing that would never be the sa again.
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