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The boss didn't blink. He reached out, his ink-stained fingers brushing the loose strands of hair away from my forehead, his touch terrifyingly gentle yet completely immovable. "A ghost doesn't know her own reflection, maybe," he murmured, his breath hot against my temple. "Look at the corner of your left eye. The faint crescent scar. My wife got it falling off a horse in Sicily when she was twelve. You have it, too. Down to the millimeter." / Chapter 27 / 39

Chapter 28 - A Toast to the FutureThe reception took place on the sprawling terrace of the cliffside villa, illuminated by thousands of fairy lights strung through the olive trees. Soft instrumental music drifted through the warm evening air as guests mingled, laughed, and raised glasses of aged Amarone.

Little Lukas, dressed in a miniature tuxedo that matched his father's, was currently being carried around by Marco, completely fascinated by the glowing sparklers the older guards were holding near the edge of the garden.

I stood by the stone balustrade, looking out over the dark, rolling waves of the ocean, feeling the cool evening breeze brush against my face.

Footsteps approached softly from behind, and a familiar warmth settled against my back as Dante wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his chin gently on my shoulder.

"Penny for your thoughts, Mrs. Moretti?" he murmured into my ear.

"I was just thinking about that night at Ristorante Bellagio," I replied, leaning back into his embrace, a soft smile playing on my lips. "If I had dropped those plates of sea bass five seconds earlier... if I had taken a different shift... none of this would have ever happened."

"Fate is a stubborn thing, Mara," Dante said softly, turning me around so I was facing him, his hands resting securely on my hips. "It tried to keep us apart for twenty years. It tried to bury us in ash and blood. But blood remembers. And love finds its way home."

I reached up, my fingers tracing the scar on his cheek, feeling the steady, powerful rhythm of his heartbeat beneath his shirt.

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