Chapter 10 - The Last Lie We Tell
Eighteen Months Later.
The Mediterranean sun warmed the golden sands of a private cove on the coast of Southern Italy.
In a small white villa overlooking the azure ocean, six-year-old Mia was running along the shoreline, throwing wooden sticks into the surf for a stray golden retriever she had adopted. Her laughter echoed across the cliffs—pure, bright, and completely untainted by the dark world that had almost claimed her.
I sat on the patio porch, sipping coffee, watching her.
Strong arms slid around my waist from behind, and a warm chest pressed against my back. Dante rested his chin on my shoulder, his breathing steady and calm. The dark suits, the handguns, and the heavy burden of Seattle’s underworld were gone, replaced by linen shirts and the peace of a man who had returned from the dead.
Officially, Dante Moretti was dead. The federal government had declared his body lost at sea following the shootout on Bainbridge Island. The empire was burned to ash, its millions seized, except for the unindexed off-shore trust funds Dante had secured for Mia before he ever took the throne.
“What are you thinking about?” Dante asked softly, kissing the side of my neck.
“I was thinking about the note,” I murmured, turning in his arms to face him. “The one you left by my coffeemaker six years ago.”
Dante smiled—a real, genuine smile that reached his dark eyes, turning the golden flecks inside them into pure light. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and slid it into my hand.
I unfolded it. It wasn't the old note. It was fresh, written in his familiar, sharp cursive script:
“Claire, I’m sorry I took six years. Thank you for looking for me. Please let me build a life with you.”
I looked up into the eyes of the man who had burned an underworld kingdom to keep us safe, pulled his face down to mine, and finally kissed him.
May you like
“You’re twenty minutes late for coffee, Mr. Moretti,” I whispered against his lips.
“Then I’ll spend the next fifty years making up for every second,” he replied, locking his fingers into mine as our daughter screamed with delight from the beach below, her voice carrying across a sea that no monster could ever cross again.
