Page 90 of Of Lies and Shadows

“I wanted to. I was seventeen. Furious. I wanted to destroy him—to ruin his family, his wife, his children. I had nothing to lose. But then I met his daughter. Fourteen years old. My sister. And suddenly, my rage didn’t matter anymore. You mattered.” He swallows. “My affection for you became more important than my need for revenge.”

Something twists in my chest, something that aches with all the things we both lost and the strange, quiet thing we found in each other.

“You mattered too,” I whisper.

And for a moment, we just sit there in silence, two half-siblings stitched together by blood and war and secrets no one else will ever fully understand.

After a beat, I murmur, “He’s going to die.”

I don’t say how or who will deal the blow.

Bruno doesn’t ask. He just nods. “I know. And he deserves to die… but not for what Forzi thinks.”

I glance at him sharply. “He threatened his children. He threatened me.”

Bruno’s jaw ticks. “Yes. And for that, he does deserve death. But the problem with the weapons? With the leak in Forzi’s supply chain? That’s not him. Not Don Salvatore either. They’re not smart enough. Not on their own.”

I glance sideways at him. “Then why don’t you tell Dante?”

Bruno exhales slowly, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. “Because he won’t listen. He doesn’t trust me. But he trustsyou,” he adds, looking at me now, something quiet and certain in his voice.

I shake my head. “I don’t think he knows what he feels when it comes to me.”

“He knows,” Bruno says softly. “He might not admit it. He might fight it with every breath. But he trusts you. With his home. With his secrets. With his children.” He pauses. “He listens to you even when he pretends not to.”

I look away, my heart tugging painfully in my chest.

“You think he doesn’t love you,” Bruno says, not unkindly. “But love looks different for men like us. It's quieter. Uglier. But sometimes… deeper too.”

“I don’t want deep,” I murmur. “I want safe. Constant. Real and permanent.”

“Nothing in life is permanent,” he says gently.

I laugh, but it’s broken. “I could love him, you know. I think I started to… before everything went wrong.”

I shake my head, cutting the thought off before it can bloom into something dangerous. “Ah, never mind.”

I push the door open and step out. He follows, silent.

How do I explain what doesn’t even make sense in my own head? That I can’t move on… not because of what he’s done, but because of what I feel. Because somewhere in this mess, I started to love him, and that terrifies me more than anything else.

How do I explain the truth? That I’m not afraid of falling. I’m afraid Ialreadyhave.

If the monster ever comes back, I won’t be able to save myself. And I need to be protected because the monsteralwaysreturns.

“So, what do we need?” Bruno asks, and I’m grateful for the shift to something safer—something that doesn’t claw at the inside of my chest.

“I need a few accessories for Lucia’s dance class. Andbasics for Alessio’s fencing lessons.”

Bruno snorts. “The boy’s starting fencing now?”

I can’t help but grin. “He’s a dedicated pirate. What can I say?”

He chuckles. “You love that boy.”

“With all my heart,” I say without hesitation.

And I mean it. The weight of everything else fades, if only for a moment, at the thought of Alessio’s wild energy and Lucia’s quiet smiles. They anchor me in a world I’m not sure I want to be a part of.

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