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MY HEART’S BEING RIPPED from my chest while Luca’s dark gaze holds mine until the elevator swooshes closed. As I stand in my lavish living room, staring at the spot where my husband stood not two seconds before, a feeling of pure misery comes over me and a tear trickles to the hardwood floor.

Then the elevator pings unexpectedly, notifying me of a visitor and snapping me out of my trance. I press the camera button, which switches on the screen, and I see that Michael’s waiting at my door. Pushing the neighboring button, I open the elevator and he enters the penthouse.

“Why are you here?” I ask, and a crease wrinkles his forehead.

“Luca texted me to meet him.”

I assess him, wondering if Luca sent him to babysit me.

“Are you okay?” he probes.

Ignoring my instinct, I don’t reveal what I learned about Tez or that Luca discovered I went out investigating on my own. I obey Luca, though it doesn’t feel right.

“I’m fine,” I respond, treading to the windows and watching the grey clouds scatter after the pouring rain has stopped.

Michael goes into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. Fortunately, he senses my mood and remains quiet.

As my thoughts assault me, I berate myself for acting rashly about Henry showing up here. But fear can force a person to make split-second decisions without considering the consequences. Some you’ll regret, some you’ll thank the lord you listened to your instinct. However, now my gut is screaming that I may have made a mistake by suspecting him. It seems that Tez lied to me because he wanted me to doubt Henry. Or is Henry being dishonest too? Could something be up between Henry and Tez? Or maybe Tez lied to Luca, making it appear as if I’m truly unstable, possibly even crazy.

Even though not all of these scenarios feel right to me, I am positive that Tez has a significant part in this chaos – perhaps he wants to obtain an official rank? He’s the one man who isn’t a high rank, but as the manager of the club, he has to have overheard Luca call me dolcezza at least once, so he’d know about the nickname.

I try to remember my conversation with Tez verbatim, but the only thing I’m sure about is that he specified the date a text was erased, which led me to think Henry did it. It makes no sense that Tez told Luca he didn’t find anything on my phone.

I knew someone was playing with me! But who else is involved? Is Henry really innocent?

Although I should feel thrilled about my discovery, a sense of gloom overcomes me. As I get closer to the truth, I’m only incensing Luca, yet one of us needs to solve this, and since he’s been unable to hold himself together, I need to figure out what’s going on. I understand that he’s worried and mad, but does he have to shut down completely? I’m not sure how to deal with this overbearing side of Luca.

At that moment, the elevator glides open again and Luca steps inside the penthouse, effortlessly holding the car seat with our napping twins, who look like Michelin dolls all wrapped in their thick coats.

I smile sadly as Luca places the seat on the couch and beckons Michael over. Without a word to me, Luca leads Michael to the door where they whisper back and forth before Michael jumps into the elevator as it closes. Then Luca turns around, his commanding presence more hostile than usual.

Trying to ignore the intensity of Luca’s focus on me, I close the distance to the twins, going to my knees and unzipping their coats. But when I release Milana’s tiny arm from her jacket, I feel that her fingers are ice-cold.

“Oh, were you cold, baby?” I murmur, smooching her hand to warm it.

Being with my children lifts my spirits immediately, and for a few moments, I’m able to put their brooding father out of my mind. I still can’t believe how adorable they are in their blue and pink clothes, and I grin inwardly as I gently squeeze both their feet, wanting to bite them because they’re too cute.

But I snap back to reality when, all of a sudden, Luca sits down next to the car seat, his angular face wreathing with anguish as he stares at me. Usually, his green eyes glimmer with love, yet now, they burst with uncertainty and anger.

Tentatively, I mutter, “Please talk to me.”

Luca steels his jaw.

“Did you speak with Henry? Does Adriano know what happened between Henry and me? You’re scaring me.”

“I’m scaring you?” he bristles. “You are terrifying me. But to answer your questions: I did talk to Henry and this will remain a secret – as long as you never pull a stunt like this again.”

“I won’t, but how do you expect me to protect myself?”

“By coming to me,” he grinds out.

I keep my voice soft to get through to him and shift to the side on my knees until I’m touching his thigh. “I have come to you, but you’ve dismissed my side of the story – constantly.”

“Do you really want to talk about this again?”

“Yes, because that’s our issue. How something’s going on and if you can’t make any sense of it, you don’t believe me. And you have to understand that I’m not simply a civilian anymore – I can protect myself and our twins. After New Year’s, you promised to let me in more, but the second there’s an incident, you become withdrawn. And now, you’re mad because I’m protecting us.”

“I’m mad because your way of protecting is confusing the entire Syndicate, and you keep involving other people so that I have to do the clean-up.” His tone is sharp.

“No, you choose to do the clean-up to stay in control, but you could give your wife the benefit of the doubt. I’m not stupid.”

“You know I don’t think you’re stupid. I have given you the benefit of the doubt, but then all the evidence points to the contrary. It points to the fact that the most likely scenario is that you’re making things up.”

“Why would I do that?” I implore him to see through his closedmindedness.

“I don’t even think you’re doing it consciously. But this is a fucking mess, Fallon.”

“Then we need to solve it.”

“That’s all I’ve been trying to do, but your volatile behavior concerns me.” He looks at Noah and then at me questioningly.

“I’d never do anything to harm them, Luca. You know that.” Defeated by Luca’s level of aggravation, I lean back.

He holds my hand on his thigh and says, “I know. When you’re yourself, you’re the sweetest mother there is, but that aside, you’re also always a million miles away lately.”

“Because I feel that we’re missing something. We have to confront Tez.”

His striking face hardens. “I’ll speak with Tez.”

“Thank you,” I reply. That means there’s a sliver of hope that he does trust me; he’s just afraid to completely relinquish control.

I meet his stony gaze and don’t know what to do or say to make things better. And neither does he, it seems. While ordinarily, we’re each other’s sanctuary, right now, when we should be enjoying this time of being new parents, everything’s being overshadowed by other business and we’ve failed to keep the mafia outside our home. However, this is where we are and I won’t break down. I just pray that Luca doesn’t either.

Needing to feel close to him, I rest my head in his lap. The scent of him teases me, making me grasp how much I miss him. Yet I quickly realize that I shouldn’t have initiated the intimacy because instead of caressing my hair, his body goes rigid. I can almost sense the rage that’s still coursing through his veins, and it seems that our conversation hasn’t really solved anything. As I grimace to fight back tears, my eyes fall closed until he speaks, “I have to go.”

My gaze shoots up and I stumble to my feet when he stands. “Where are you going?”

Rounding the couch, Luca straightens the lapels of his navy blue jacket. “Work.”

He means the club. I can’t help but wonder if he’s going to drink away our problems – I threw the only bottle of liquor we had in the cabinet in the trash. Nonetheless, I’m so dumbfounded by his desire to be away from me that I’m struck mute and merely stare at his back. When he moves into the elevator, his unreadable expression has been summoned and he watches me sternly. I turn away before the doors close, despising how he’s able to escape our issues.

I take in a deep breath before shifting to the twins to lift Noah out of the car seat and lay him in the bassinet. Then I pick up Milana and drop down on the couch while smelling her hair and relaxing. Although I become more disheartened as time passes and there’s no sign of Luca.

I eat dinner and nurse the twins. I’d planned to do tummy time with Luca, but in the end, I coax Noah and Milana to learn to lie on their stomachs by myself at around eight.

In the space of several agonizing hours, I wait for Luca, but he doesn’t show. At midnight, I crawl into bed, stashing my gun on the nightstand, and glower at the perfectly white-painted ceiling. I lie in our extravagant master suite alone, realizing I’ve never felt lonely in this marriage until now.

Ultimately, I fall into a restless sleep while I pray that he comes home at any second.