Rising From Ashes: The Architect's Comeback

I woke up in a sterile hospital room with no memory of the lethal-looking man pacing outside the glass. My friend told me he was Dante Moretti, the Underboss of Chicago, and the fiancé I had supposedly worshipped for seven years.

But the truth shattered me faster than the crash did.

When our convoy was ambushed and the car caught fire, Dante didn't pull me out. He chose to save Valeria-the widow of a soldier he felt guilty about-leaving me to burn in the backseat. He called it a "tactical decision." I called it a death sentence.

I thought losing my memory was a curse, but it was a gift. It stripped away the delusion of love.

I saw a man who treated me like a useful piece of furniture. I saw a rival in Valeria who smirked while taking my job and my place. When she set a room on fire to frame me, Dante saved her again, leaving me to choke on the smoke. He even branded me a thief in front of the entire Commission to protect her lies.

He thought I would always be there, the obedient statue waiting for his scraps.

He was wrong.

I fled to New York and walked straight into the arms of his sworn enemy, Enzo Falcone. A man who didn't just promise to protect me, but walked through fire to do it.

Months later, when Dante finally realized the truth and crawled back to me in the rain, begging for a second chance, I looked him dead in the eye.

"Forgetting you was the only peace I ever knew."

I took Enzo's hand, letting Dante see exactly what he had lost.

"Remembering you just confirmed that you are a mistake I will never make again."

Chapter 1

Sienna Vitiello POV

The doctor asked me to name the President, the current year, and my fiancé.

But when he pointed to the lethal-looking man pacing outside the glass like a caged tiger, I felt nothing but a hollow silence where a name should be.

My head throbbed with a violent rhythm, syncing perfectly with the shrill beeping of the monitor beside my bed.

I looked at the man again.

He was terrifyingly beautiful, radiating the kind of dark, suppressed power that usually came with a loaded gun and a death wish.

He wore a charcoal suit that likely cost more than a surgeon's annual salary, but it was ruined-disheveled, stained with dust and dried blood.

I should know him.

My heart should be racing with love, or fear, or adrenaline. Anything other than this cold, clinical detachment.

"I don't know him," I whispered, my throat feeling raw, as if I had swallowed broken glass.

The doctor scribbled something on his clipboard, his expression grim.

"Retrograde amnesia, localized to specific emotional connections," he muttered, mostly to himself.

The door burst open before he could explain further.

A young woman with a riot of wild curls and tear-stained cheeks rushed in.

"Sienna! Oh my God, you're awake."

She threw her arms around me, careful to avoid the bandages wrapped around my ribs and the IV line taped to my hand.

I flinched, my body stiffening instinctively at the contact.

"Giulia?" I asked, the name floating up from the gray fog of my memory.

She pulled back, her eyes wide, searching my face.

"You remember me?"

"Yes," I said, shifting to alleviate the sharp pressure in my side. "You're Giulia Moretti. We went to boarding school together. You hate olives and love vintage cars."

She let out a wet, relieved laugh, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

"Thank God. I thought you forgot everyone."

Her gaze flickered to the glass wall, where the man was still pacing.

"Do you... do you know who that is?"

I followed her gaze.

"No. Who is he?"

Giulia's face fell, a mixture of pity and disbelief washing over her features.

"That's Dante. My brother."

The name meant nothing to me.

"He's the Underboss of the Chicago Outfit," she whispered, leaning closer as if the walls had ears. "And he's your fiancé."

I stared at the stranger.

"Fiancé?"

"You've been obsessed with him for seven years, Sienna. You molded yourself into the perfect statue for him. You learned his enemies, his scotch preferences, his kill list. You manage the Family's art foundation just to make yourself useful to him."

I listened to her words, but they felt like a story about someone else.

A pathetic stranger.

"Why am I here?" I asked, gesturing to the sterile hospital room.

"We were ambushed," Giulia said, her voice dropping to a hush. "A hit on the convoy. A drive-by on the I-90."

"And he..." I pointed to the glass. "He brought me here?"

Giulia hesitated, biting her lip until it turned white.

"Not exactly."

"Tell me."

"He had to make a choice," she said quietly, the words heavy in the air. "The car was spinning. You were in the back seat. Valeria was in the front."

"Valeria?"

"His... friend. The widow of a soldier he owed a debt to."

I felt a cold prickle of warning at the base of my neck.

"He pulled Valeria out first," Giulia confessed, unable to meet my eyes. "The car caught fire before he could get back to you. The blast threw you clear, but... you hit your head. Hard."

I looked at my hands.

They were scraped raw, the nails broken and jagged.

So, my fiancé left me in a burning car to save another woman.

Giulia grabbed my hand.

"He thought you were safe, Sienna. He has a savior complex with her. It's complicated."

It didn't sound complicated.

It sounded like I was disposable.

I reached for the cracked smartphone sitting on the bedside table.

"Do you know the passcode?" I asked.

Giulia nodded.

"It's his birthday. October 14th."

I typed in 1014.

The screen unlocked.

My stomach turned.

The wallpaper was a candid photo of him looking out a window, brooding.

I opened the gallery, and bile rose in my throat.

It was a shrine.

Hundreds of photos of him. Him drinking coffee. Him walking into meetings. Him ignoring me.

There were notes in the app, a manifesto of my own desperation.

Dante hates the color yellow. Wear blue.

Dante is allergic to shellfish. Check the menu twice.

Dante's mother's anniversary-buy white lilies.

I read through the list of my own servitude.

Seven years.

I had spent seven years bowing to a man who left me to burn.

Disgust rose in my throat, bitter and acidic.

I didn't feel love for this man.

I felt like I was looking at the evidence of a crime scene where I was the victim.

"Sienna?" Giulia asked softly. "Are you okay?"

I looked up at her, my vision clear for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.

"I'm fine," I said, my voice unnervingly steady.

I selected the first photo.

Delete.

The second.

Delete.

I went to the settings and selected 'Delete All'.

The screen went black for a heartbeat, then refreshed, beautifully empty.

I looked at the man through the glass one last time.

He stopped pacing and locked eyes with me.

His gaze was cold, like the surface of a frozen lake.

He didn't look relieved.

He looked annoyed that I was taking so long to recover.

I turned away from him.

"Pass me the phone, Giulia," I said. "I need to call my mother."

"What are you going to say?"

"I'm going to tell her the wedding is still on," I said, staring at the blank white wall.

Giulia gasped.

"You just said you don't remember him!"

"I don't," I said, feeling the ghost of a headache pulsing behind my eyes.

"But a Vitiello never breaks a contract. I will marry him for the alliance."

I paused, my fingers brushing the bandage on my head.

"But I'm done loving him."