Chapter 7

Emilio POV

The funeral for Elana was non-existent.

She simply ceased to be.

I told the Family she had betrayed us to the Feds. It was a lie, of course, but a useful one. It consolidated my power, cementing my reputation as a man who placed the Code above his own heart. It made me look ruthless.

But looking ruthless and feeling powerful are two very different things.

I stood in the center of the estate, listening.

It was quiet.

Deadly quiet.

Usually, Elana would be in the solarium at this hour, sketching. The rhythmic scritch-scratch of her charcoal against paper had been the background noise of my life, a tether that kept me grounded.

Now, there was only a suffocating silence.

I turned and walked into her closet.

Most of her things were gone. The police had seized some for "evidence" regarding her alleged betrayal; I had ordered the rest packed away. I couldn't bear to look at them.

But now, standing in the void she left behind, I needed to find something.

Anything.

I tore through the remaining drawers, my hands shaking.

I was looking for a note. A diary. A sketch. Any sign that she had thought of me in her final moments-that she hadn't died hating me.

I found nothing.

Just empty velvet hangers and the faint, haunting scent of jasmine.

"Boss?"

I spun around, my hand instinctively going to my hip.

My Consigliere, Marco, stood in the doorway. He looked wary, his eyes darting from my disheveled appearance to the open drawers.

"What is it?" I snapped, the words harsh in the stillness.

"The Commission is satisfied," Marco said, keeping his voice low. "The heat is off. Business is returning to normal."

"Good."

"But... there are rumors."

I narrowed my eyes. "What kind of rumors?"

"That you're losing your grip. That the house is empty, and the Don is... distracted."

"The house is fine," I growled, turning back to the empty closet.

"Emilio," Marco stepped closer, dropping the formality. "You need an heir. A legitimate one. Leo is... complicated. With Elana gone, his status is shaky at best."

"Leo is my son," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

"He is a bastard," Marco said bluntly. "In our world, that matters. You know it does. You need a wife. You need more sons."

I laughed.

It was a dry, hacking sound that scraped against my throat like broken glass.

"More sons?"

The irony tasted like bile.

I remembered the lie I had told Elana, night after night.

It's too dangerous, Elana. I can't bring children into this life. I won't do it to them.

I had told her that while I was tucking Leo into bed in a penthouse downtown.

I had denied the woman I loved the one thing she desperately wanted, just to give it to a woman who viewed me as nothing more than a high-limit ATM.

"I can't," I said, staring at the empty hangers.

"You can," Marco insisted, relentless. "You are young. You are the Don. You have a duty."

"I can't," I repeated, the word final.

Because every time I closed my eyes, I didn't see a future. I saw Elana falling.

I saw her hand reaching out-not for me, but for air.

I walked past Marco, shouldering him aside as I stormed out of the closet, out of the bedroom that smelled too much like her.

I found myself in the hallway, my feet carrying me to a door I usually kept locked.

The nursery.

The one Elana had designed but never used.

I pushed the door open. It was painted a soft, neutral gray, waiting for a life that would never come.

I stood in the center of the room, the silence here heavier than anywhere else in the house.

I realized then that I hadn't just killed my wife.

I had killed my future.

I had burned down the only pure, legitimate thing in my life for a cheap thrill and a web of lies.

And now, standing in the gray ruins of her dream, I was truly the King of Ashes.