Chapter 7

Elena Rossi POV

The apartment was suffocatingly silent.

I had bandaged my arm using the first aid kit I found under the sink. The cut on my cheek was shallow, but it was deep enough to leave a mark.

Good.

I wanted a scar. I wanted something permanent to remember the night I finally woke up.

My phone buzzed against the nightstand, shattering the quiet.

It was Sofia.

She had unblocked me solely to send a text.

*Sofia: So sorry about the dress, darling. But honestly, white isn't your color. It's for brides. You looked like a stain next to Dante. Enjoy the dog. Or did he run away too?*

A photo followed.

It was a selfie. She was sitting in the passenger seat of the Maybach-my husband's car.

Dante was driving. His hand rested casually, possessively, on her thigh.

I didn't cry.

I was done crying.

I set the phone down and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. The rain had finally stopped. It was 2:00 AM.

Pulling on a generic black hoodie, I slipped out of the penthouse. I hailed a cab and gave the driver the address of the Vitiello Estate.

The guards at the gate recognized me, though clearly not as the Don's wife. They assumed I was coming to see Marco or retrieving something from the servant quarters where I used to belong.

They waved me through without a second glance.

I walked through the wet grass to the old peach tree in the back garden.

Seven years ago, on Dante's eighteenth birthday, we had buried a time capsule beneath these roots. He wasn't the Don then. He was just a boy crushing under too much weight.

I dropped to my knees in the mud.

I didn't bother with a shovel; I dug with my bare hands.

The dirt was cold, heavy, and unforgiving. My fingernails snapped against the rocky soil. The fresh bandage on my arm soaked through, dark mud mingling with new blood.

I didn't care.

My fingers struck metal.

I pulled out the rusty tin box and pried the lid open. Inside lay two folded slips of paper and a tarnished silver locket.

I unfolded my paper first.

*I wish to serve and love Dante Vitiello until the day I die. I wish to be his light.*

I stared at the words.

I had written them in blood. Literally. I had pricked my finger to seal the vow.

What a stupid, naive girl I had been.

I unfolded Dante's paper next.

*I wish to regain my sight. I wish for the Family to be strong. I wish for Sofia to be safe.*

Sofia.

Even then. Even when she was ignoring him, even when I was the one sitting beside him, listening to his dreams, he used his wish on her safety.

I wasn't in his wish.

I was just the shovel he used to bury it.

I took my paper-my bloody vow-and ripped it into tiny shreds.

I walked to the drainage grate near the fountain and let the pieces fall. I watched the dark water carry them away, down into the sewer where they belonged.

Then, I picked up the locket.

He had given it to me the night his sight returned. He had called it a promise.

I returned to the tree and dug a new hole, deeper this time. I dropped the silver chain into the muck.

I shoveled the earth back over it. I patted the dirt down flat until the ground looked undisturbed.

I wasn't just burying a necklace.

I was burying Elena Rossi.

My phone buzzed again.

*Dante: Are you okay? Luca said you refused the car.*

I stared at the screen, his name no longer making my heart flutter.

I typed back.

*Me: I'm fine. I don't need you.*

I hit send.

Then I turned and walked out of the garden, leaving my heart rotting under the peach tree.