Chapter 7 - The First Woman I Chose
When we returned to Chicago, everything changed.
Vincent's assets were frozen.
The board voted to remove him.
The seven families reopened their investigations.
My father's death was officially classified as homicide.
My mother's disappearance became a criminal case.
And I finally met her.
She was standing outside my penthouse when I arrived.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakably my mother.
I stopped walking.
She whispered,
“Luca.”
I couldn't move.
Then she opened her arms.
I walked into them.
For twelve years, I had imagined her dead.
For twelve years, I had hated myself for not being enough to make her stay.
Now I knew the truth.
She had stayed away because Vincent had threatened her.
We cried.
Then she looked at Isabella.
“You're the woman.”
Isabella smiled.
“I suppose I am.”
My mother laughed.
“You've done what none of us could.”
“What?”
“You made my son believe he deserves happiness.”
I looked at Isabella.
She looked back.
Something inside me shifted.
I had spent years believing love was something other people experienced.
Something fragile.
Something dangerous.
But maybe love wasn't dangerous.
Maybe trusting the wrong person was.
Months passed.
Isabella moved into the penthouse.
Not because she needed my money.
She refused most of what I offered.
She kept working.
She opened a nonprofit for women who had been manipulated through financial abuse.
I funded it.
She hated that.
“I don't want to be your charity.”
“You're not.”
“Then what am I?”
I smiled.
“My partner.”
She looked at me.
“In business?”
“In everything.”
She laughed.
One evening, we stood on the balcony.
The city lights stretched below us.
“Luca?”
“Yes?”
“Do you remember the first night?”
“The champagne bottle?”
She smiled.
“The fifth thousand dollars.”
I laughed.
“You almost destroyed my penthouse.”
“I was terrified.”
“I know.”
“I thought you were dangerous.”
“I thought you hated me.”
She looked at me.
“I didn't.”
“What did you feel?”
She stepped closer.
“Curiosity.”
I smiled.
“And now?”
“Something much worse.”
“What?”
“Love.”
I stared at her.
For a man who had spent seventeen years believing love was impossible, that word terrified me.
May you like
But I didn't run.
Neither did she.
