Chapter 6
He nodded.
“I will.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But I can promise I’ll spend the rest of my life proving I understand.”
For a long moment, Isabella said nothing.
Then:
“You really are terrible at apologies.”
A small smile appeared on his face.
“I’ve been told.”
“By who?”
“My wife.”
She looked away.
“I’m not your wife right now.”
The smile disappeared.
“I know.”
And that was the answer she needed.
Because for the first time, Dante Moretti was not trying to claim her.
He was trying to earn her.
Six months later, Isabella moved back into the Moretti house.
But everything was different.
Not because Dante changed who he was.
Because he finally understood that love was not ownership.
The first thing he did was give her a key to every room in the house.
“The security system?” she asked.
“Updated.”
“The cameras?”
“You have access.”
“The guest rooms?”
“Your decision.”
She looked at him.
“My decision?”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Even if Valentina needs somewhere to stay?”
Dante looked horrified.
“Absolutely not without asking you first.”
She laughed.
A real laugh.
The kind he had missed.
The kind from the photograph on the terrace.
Years later, people would still talk about Dante Moretti.
They would talk about his power.
His reputation.
The empire he built.
But the people who knew him best would say something else.
They would say the most important thing Dante Moretti ever learned was that the strongest person in his life was not the person who stood beside him in fear.
It was the person who had enough strength to walk away.
And the reason he never forgot that morning—the morning Isabella packed her bags before sunrise—was because it was the day he almost lost the only person who had ever loved him without being afraid of him.
And the day he finally learned how to love her back.
Three months after Isabella returned to the Moretti estate, she learned something important.
Dante Moretti was still Dante Moretti.
He still walked into rooms and made conversations stop.
He still had men who watched every entrance, drivers who knew every route, and enemies who smiled politely while planning against him.
The world outside their walls had not changed.
But inside their home, something had.
He knocked.
Every time.
It was such a small thing that Isabella almost laughed the first few weeks.