Dante Moretti POV

The coffee in my hand had turned to tepid sludge.

I walked down the hospital corridor, rubbing the grit of exhaustion from my eyes.

I needed to go home. I needed to face Elena.

I had been harsh. I had pushed her. The memory of her body hitting the wall replayed in my mind, making my stomach turn with a sharp twist of nausea.

I would apologize. I would buy her those diamond earrings she had admired. She would forgive me. She always forgave me. She was Elena. She was the constant in my chaotic world.

I turned the corner toward Sofia's room.

A man was exiting her door. He was wearing hospital scrubs, but he didn't move like a healer. He moved with the predatory grace of a soldier.

He turned his head.

I saw the tattoo on his neck. A coiled snake.

The Genovese crest.

I stopped dead. My blood ran cold.

He disappeared into the stairwell before I could even process the threat to react.

I walked into the room, my senses on high alert.

Sofia was beaming. She looked vibrant—far too vibrant for someone allegedly suffering from a severe concussion.

"Dante! You're back! Did you bring me coffee?"

I stared at her, searching for the truth in her eyes.

"Who was that man?" I asked, my voice low.

Sofia blinked, the picture of innocence. "What man?"

"The man who just left."

"Oh." She laughed, but it was a brittle, nervous sound. "That was Uber Eats. He brought me a bagel."

"Uber Eats drivers wear surgical scrubs now?"

Sofia's smile faltered. "You're being paranoid, baby. Come sit."

Before I could answer, the door swung open behind me.

My parents walked in.

My mother, the Matriarch, swept in like a brewing tempest, while my father trailed behind, looking weary.

Sofia gasped, feigning delight. "Mr. and Mrs. Moretti! I am so honored you came."

She reached for my hand.

I pulled away as if burned.

My mother didn't speak. She slammed a heavy leather album onto the tray table. It hit with a thunderous thud that rattled the water pitcher.

"What is this?" Sofia asked, her voice trembling slightly.

"Look at it," my mother spat.

I opened the album.

It was a catalog of neglect. Photos of Elena.

Elena at the charity gala. Standing alone.

Elena at Christmas mass. Sitting alone.

Elena at my nephew's baptism. Celebrating alone.

"She has been the perfect wife for three years, Dante," my mother said, her voice cutting like glass. "While you played nursemaid to this... creature."

Sofia's face crumpled. "That's not fair! I needed him!"

My mother ignored her and pulled out a tablet.

"Security footage," she announced. "From the hallway camera. Two hours ago."

She pressed play.

I watched in silence.

I watched the man with the snake tattoo enter the room. I watched him stay for forty minutes. I watched him leave, laughing as if sharing a private joke.

I looked up at Sofia.

Her lipstick was smeared. Her eyes were no longer soft; they were calculating, shifting with panic.

"You are being played by a black widow," my mother said. "The Genovese didn't kidnap her. She invited them."

The realization hit me like a physical blow to the chest.

The trap. The warehouse. The sudden "danger."

It was all a game. A choreographed performance to make me leave the gala. A game to make me leave Elena.

And I had fallen for it.

Sofia reached for me again, desperation clawing at her features. "Dante, please. They are lying."

I looked at her. Really looked at her.

I didn't see the tragic widow anymore. I saw a cheap, grasping traitor.

"Take me home," she begged, tears spilling over.

I took a step back, putting distance between us.

"I am not your chauffeur," I said, my voice turning to ice. "I am the Don."

My mother stepped forward, her expression grim.

"Go find your wife, Dante. Before you have no wife left to find."

I turned around without another word.

"Dante!" Sofia screamed behind me.

I walked out. I walked faster. Then, I started to run.

Dread pooled in my gut, heavy and dark like tar.

Elena's face when she hit the wall. The blood on her fingers. The hollow way she had said, "I will."

I needed to get home.

Dante Moretti POV

I must have shattered every speed limit in the state of New York.

My armored SUV tore up the estate’s driveway. Impatience clawed at me; I didn't wait for the gate to open fully, scraping the vehicle's paint against the iron bars with a sickening screech.

I slammed the gearshift into park and sprinted for the front door.

"Elena!" I shouted.

The foyer echoed my desperation back at me. It was empty.

"Elena!"

Silence.

I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

I burst into the master bedroom.

It was cold. The window was open, inviting the damp air inside.

The acrid smell of smoke hit me.

My gaze snapped to the fireplace. There, amidst the embers, lay the ashes of a painting and the charred remains of a book.

I looked at the bed. It was made. Perfectly smooth. As if no one had ever slept there.

Then I looked at the nightstand.

It was there.

The platinum ring.

I walked over to it, my legs feeling like lead.

I picked it up. It was ice-cold.

She never took it off. Not to shower. Not to sleep.

"She's gone, Dante," a voice said.

My mother stood in the room behind me. She must have followed me up.

I turned to her. "Where? Where did she go?"

My mother simply shook her head. She handed me a velvet box.

I flipped it open.

The Moretti Emeralds. The necklace meant for the Queen of the family.

"You were too late to give her these," my mother said softly.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Elena.

*The number you have dialed is no longer in service.*

I stared at the screen.

Disconnected.

"Giovanni!" I roared.

The butler appeared in the doorway instantly. He looked pale.

"Where is she?" I demanded. "Track her car. Track her phone."

"Her signal is dead, Sir," Giovanni said, his voice trembling. "Her credit cards are inactive. She... she took the cash from the safe."

I threw the phone against the wall. It shattered into plastic shrapnel.

"Lock down JFK," I ordered. "Lock down LaGuardia. No one leaves this city."

"It's been two hours, Sir," Giovanni whispered. "She could be anywhere."

I looked at the ring in my hand. I squeezed it until the metal bit into my palm.

"She can't leave. She belongs to me."

"I will burn this city to find her," I vowed.

My mother looked past me, toward the ashes in the fireplace.

"You already burned your home, my son. Now you are just standing in the soot."

I ignored her. I grabbed a fresh phone from the drawer.

I dialed Luca.

"Find her," I snarled. "Find her, or I will kill everyone who helped her."

I walked to the window. The rain had stopped. The world was washed in gray.

She was gone.

And for the first time in my life, I was afraid.

Dante Moretti POV:

The velvet box in my palm weighed more than a loaded gun.

I sat in the driver’s seat of the armored SUV, the engine purring like a restrained beast. Rain drummed relentlessly against the bulletproof glass.

I flicked the box open.

The emeralds burned with green fire in the dim light. My mother had said they were for a Queen.

I snapped the box shut.

I didn't have a Queen. I had an empty house and a chest full of ash.

I shoved the box into the center console. It hit something hard. A stack of papers. The shipping manifests I had signed the very day I told her to get out of the car.

I didn't look at them. I didn't care about shipping routes. I cared about the silence in my head where her voice used to be.

My phone vibrated. Sofia.

I declined the call.

It vibrated again. Sofia.

I blocked the number.

Giovanni stood outside the open driver’s door, holding a black umbrella against the downpour. The old man looked frail tonight. His shoulders were slumped.

"Go home, Giovanni," I said. My voice sounded like gravel.

He didn't move.

"She left because the contract was dissolved, Sir."

I froze. My hand hovered over the ignition.

"What contract?"

Giovanni looked at his shoes, then at me. His eyes were wet.

"Mrs. Moretti ordered the room cleared after the signing. She said you finalized the terms."

I stared at him. The terms. The peace treaty.

Before I could ask him what the hell he was talking about, another car screeched into the driveway.

Luca jumped out. My Capo. My right hand.

He looked pale. Luca never looked pale.

"Boss," he said, breathless. "We have a situation."

"I don't care," I said. "Find my wife."

"It's about the wife, Boss. And the Widow."

I stepped out of the car. The rain hit my face, cooling the rage that was boiling under my skin.

"Speak."

Luca swallowed hard.

"The Genovese are at the Red Velvet Club. Enzo is buying rounds for the house. He's bragging, Dante."

"Bragging about what?"

"That he turned Sofia. That he took the Don's mistress and made her sing."

I felt a muscle in my jaw jump.

"Is that all? Sofia is trash. Let him have her."

Luca hesitated. He looked terrified.

"There's more. They are saying... they are saying you are a cuckold. They are saying you were too busy chasing a whore to notice your wife walking out the front door. They say the Moretti family is a joke."

The world stopped.

The rain stopped. The sound of the city stopped.

There was only the rushing of blood in my ears.

Disrespect.

In our world, disrespect is a death sentence. If I let them talk, I lose the street. If I lose the street, I lose the empire.

I looked at the empty passenger seat where Elena should have been.

I had to choose. Chase the woman I love, or save the crown she hated.

If I lost the crown, I would have nothing to offer her but a corpse.

I pulled my phone out. I had a draft text to Elena.

*Come home. I will fix it.*

I deleted it.

"Get the men," I said to Luca.

He nodded, relief flooding his face.

"We go to the club."