Chapter 13
Conversations that ended when Sophia wanted them to.
It wasn’t perfect.
It was real.
After dinner, Sophia wandered upstairs.
Dominic found her standing in the same bathroom where everything had changed.
She wore his jacket again.
He leaned against the doorway.
“That looks familiar.”
Sophia smiled into the mirror.
“I was thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
She turned.
“Do you remember what you said that night?”
“I remember everything.”
She walked closer.
“You told me if I was going to whisper your name in your bathroom, I should lock the door.”
Dominic’s gaze darkened with amusement.
“I did.”
Sophia reached behind him.
Clicked the lock.
Then looked up.
“Dominic.”
His expression changed.
“Sophia.”
She whispered his name again.
“Nico.”
He stepped closer.
“You’re doing that deliberately.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She smiled.
“Because the last time you heard me say your name in this room, I didn’t know who I was anymore.”
Dominic’s face softened.
“And now?”
Sophia looked at herself in the mirror.
Then at him.
“Now I know exactly who I am.”
She was no longer Anthony Raineri’s discarded fiancée.
No longer the Caruso bargaining chip.
No longer the woman measuring her worth by a dress size, an engagement ring or someone else’s approval.
She was Sophia.
Difficult when necessary.
Soft when she chose.
Angry sometimes.
Happy often.
Still healing.
Still becoming.
Loved, but not owned.
Protected, but never imprisoned.
Dominic touched her cheek.
“And who are you?”
Sophia smiled.
“The woman who chose you.”
His forehead rested against hers.
“And who am I?”
She pretended to consider it.
“A man whose contracts need supervision.”
Dominic laughed.
“Unbelievable.”
“A terrifying Mafia Don with a serious control problem.”
“Careful.”
“A man who remembers women’s shoes for four years.”
“Sophia.”
She smiled wider.
“And the first person who looked at me when I felt invisible and told me I wasn’t.”
His amusement disappeared.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Dominic said the words Sophia once believed she would spend her entire life begging someone to mean.
“I see you.”
She closed her eyes.
This time, they were not words rescuing her.
She no longer needed rescuing.
They were simply true.
Sophia opened her eyes.
“I know.”
And that, more than anything, was how Dominic knew she had finally come home to herself.
Not because she belonged to him.
Because she belonged to herself first.
He had only been fortunate enough to be the man she chose afterward.