Page 22 of Of Lies and Shadows

She points to the sauce. “You need this first. I’ll help.”

She takes his hand, wraps his fingers around the spoon, and they spread it together.

And just like that… something shifts. He doesn’t flinch when tomato sauce stains his shirt.

He lets Alessio shout, “Papa’s pizza better be a fireball, or it’s not allowed!” And God help me, he smiles.

Not that cold, sharp smirk I’ve seen a handful of times. Arealsmile.

And at that moment, I don’t see the man my father told me to fear.

I don’t see the capo.

I don’t see the criminal.

I don’t even see the cold-eyed stranger who handed me a job and a warning in the same breath.

I see a father. Just a man.Trying.

And something in my chest twists painfully because I don’t know what to do with this version of him.

The one kneeling beside his daughter, letting her shape his dough into a star. The one who doesn’t look like a monster at all.

Just… tired. And trying. And a little lost.

I don’t know what to do with this man. But I know I’m in trouble.

Chapter Six

Dante

Life is taking a turn I didn’t expect, and I’m not entirely sure what to do about it.

First, there’s Don Salvatore and the Vescari family, who are systematically sabotaging my business, chipping away at the foundation like termites. This leads me to a very unpleasant conclusion: There’s a rat in my organization.

They bought Gordo Overseas right from under my nose. How?

Vito says it was a fluke. I don’t believe in flukes.

So, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on two fronts—trying to secure an alternate route for shipments and, more importantly, smoking out the bastard who betrayed me.

Because when I find him, and Iwillfind him, he will regret the day he was born in ways he can’t even imagine.

And then… there are the unsettling feelings at home. The onesshebrought in her wake. The ones she ignites daily.

It started with that ridiculous pizza night. She spoke about creating memories, and I humored her at the time, unsure why. Maybe it was exhaustion. Maybe curiosity.

But then I saw it. Lucia giggled at something I did.

Alessio looked at me without that wary distance he usually keeps, as if, just for a second, he wasn’t bracing for disappointment.

It woke something in me. Something still and warm. Something that felt like peace—not a feeling I’m familiar with.

And then there’s her.

She’s been in this house for less than a month and somehow carved herself a permanent place, not just in the twins’ lives but in mine.

She’s made herself a quiet kind of solace I didn’t know I needed.

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