Chapter 16
“Lucia—”
She fastened it.
“My husband chose his pride over me.”
Her eyes moved toward Dante.
“My son almost did the same.”
Dante accepted the words without defending himself.
Lucia smiled at me.
“But you made him become better than the man who raised him.”
My throat tightened.
“No. He chose that.”
Lucia looked at her son.
“Yes.”
She touched his cheek.
“He did.”
---
Later that night, after everyone had gone, Dante and I stood alone in the salon.
The necklace rested against my collarbone.
He looked at it.
“I hate that thing.”
I laughed.
“It’s beautiful.”
“It has caused approximately twenty years of family trauma.”
“Still beautiful.”
He pulled me closer.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then he said:
“I need to tell you something.”
“That sentence is rarely comforting in this family.”
He almost smiled.
Then became serious.
“The night they found the necklace in your bag, I thought being a leader meant refusing to choose sides before I knew every fact.”
I waited.
“I was wrong.”
His thumb brushed my wedding ring.
“Sometimes you don’t know every fact.”
He looked into my eyes.
“But you know the person.”
My chest tightened.
“And I knew you.”
“Yes.”
“I just didn’t have the courage to let knowing you matter more than how my family judged me.”
I touched his face.
“You learned.”
“Because you left.”
“Yes.”
He smiled faintly.
“That was extremely unpleasant.”
“It was supposed to be.”
“I suspected.”
I laughed.
Then his expression softened.
“If it ever happens again—”
“If another priceless necklace mysteriously appears in my handbag?”
“Anything.”
His hands settled around my waist.
“If the entire world stands in front of me and tells me you’re guilty, I’ll still ask questions.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Careful.”
“But I’ll ask them standing beside you.”
That was different.
Not blind loyalty.
Not obedience.
Trust.
I kissed him.
And for the first time, the sapphire necklace no longer felt like evidence of everything the Moretti family had done wrong.
It felt like proof that cycles could end.
Dante’s father had lost his wife because he valued suspicion more than trust.
Dante had almost lost me the same way.
But almost mattered.
Because sometimes the difference between repeating your parents’ mistakes and ending them forever is what you do after someone shows you the mirror.
Dante looked into it.
He did not turn away.
Neither did Sophia.