Dominic's POV

For seven years I had kept a hidden liaison with the daughter of the Falcone bloodline, my sister's sworn friend of the house.

One night, after too many glasses of red, she looked at me and said in that light, joking tone, "Dominic, I'll find you a better woman. So, can you stop clinging to me from now on?"

I stayed calm, my expression unreadable.

In my past life, I hadn't agreed to her proposal. I insisted on being with her instead. But long after, she avoided me, ignored me, and deliberately pushed me away.

When there was a matter on the road, a car folding around me and my blood running out onto the asphalt while I fought to stay breathing, she was chasing the Northern Lights with her first love, an ocean and a continent away.

It was then I finally understood that sincerity could shatter in an instant and love couldn't be forced.

——

So, now, I simply said, "Alright."

Nora Falcone froze, clearly caught off guard by how quickly I responded.

The private room of the club sat dim, the low lights flickering faintly against the dark wood and the crystal on the table. Her face, bare of any makeup, carried an unusual flush, but her eyes were clear and sober. There wasn't even a trace of drunkenness in them.

I sat up straight, meeting her gaze with a faint smile.

Her usual laziness was gone, replaced by a serious expression. "Dominic, did you even hear what I just said?"

I nodded. "I heard you."

In the past, if she'd said something like that, I would've pretended to be annoyed and cut her off, telling her to stop joking around.

But now, I remained indifferent, as if she'd said something completely trivial.

"Dominic, you—"

Before she could finish, my sister Adriana, who had stepped out for air, came back through the door. Conversation in this world tends to still when Adriana Valente enters a room, and even Nora sat a little straighter.

She glanced at Nora and let a playful edge into her voice. "Guess who I just saw down the hall?"

Without waiting for an answer, Adriana went on, "I saw your first love. Drunk out of his mind, being hauled into another room by a few women dripping in enough jewelry to fund a shipment."

She hadn't even finished the sentence before Nora shot to her feet. Her hand had been twisting the thin gold bracelet at her wrist; the instant Lorenzo's name hung in the air, her hand went still and her whole body angled toward the door before she knew she'd moved. Then she stormed out.

Not long after, the sound of arguing and breaking glass carried down the hallway.

Despite that, I stayed in my seat, calmly peeling an orange from the fruit platter and eating it slice by slice.

Nora loved fruit but hated peeling it. Every time, I'd carefully peel it and set it in front of her. Only then would she take a few bites.

Adriana used to tease me about it. "You treat her like a saint's relic. Why don't I ever see you handle your own blood this gently? Don't tell me you've got feelings for her."

There were so many times I wanted to name what Nora and I were to each other, but she'd always link her arm through mine and cut me off with a grin.

"Maybe Dominic thinks I'm more of a real sister to him than you are. Little brothers ought to spoil their older sisters. Any objections?"

Over time, I understood what she truly wanted: to keep us hidden. A Falcone daughter did not let it be known she'd bound herself to a man ranked beneath her. So I stopped trying to tell anyone.

For seven years, no one in our lives knew we were together.

Now Adriana lingered by the door, reading the hallway, waiting for the right moment to step in. She turned back to me, still eating fruit, and toyed with the heavy signet ring on her thumb the way she did when she hadn't decided yet whether something was worth her trouble. "Dominic, your Nora's out there throwing hands with someone. Aren't you going to help her?"

I swallowed the last slice of orange and shook my head. "It's a fight between women. Why would a man put himself in the middle of it?"

She raised an eyebrow but didn't argue. Then she slid the ring back into place, folded her hands, and stepped out to handle it herself.

Meanwhile, I stayed in the room a long time, long enough for the noise outside to die down. Only then did I stand and walk out.

The first thing I saw was Nora holding tightly to a man's arm.

It was her first love, the one she could never cut ties with. Lorenzo Bianchi.

He was drunk, sagging against her as though his body had no bones left in it.

She didn't push him away. She held him closer, her arms wrapped around him like something she meant to protect.

Her dark, bright eyes were filled with anger, and with something else she hadn't yet named for herself: heartbreak.

Dominic's POV

Adriana leaned in closer, a sly grin curving at the corner of her mouth. "Dominic, you think there's any chance those two crawl back to each other?"

She pitched it just loud enough to carry across the room, past the low murmur of made men and the clink of glasses at the bar.

Nora's head came up on cue. When she caught sight of me standing a few feet off, something flickered behind her eyes, the look of someone caught between two loyalties. She said quickly, "I'm not thinking about getting back together with him. He's just drunk. I'm helping him out."

I gave her a calm smile and shook my head. "I understand, Nora. Lorenzo looks half gone. Why don't you take him home?"

Her brows drew together at the way the name sat on my tongue, formal, distant, a door closing. But she didn't argue. She twisted the thin gold bracelet at her wrist once, then went still and slid her shoulder under Lorenzo's arm. Before she left, she turned back to Adriana. "You two should head home soon. Don't wander around too much."

I watched them disappear down the hallway, her body already angled toward him, toward the door, the way it always was the second his name entered a room.

A sharp, needle-like pain pricked at my heart.

All I could do was laugh, low and bitter, at how pathetic the whole thing felt.

In my last life I got what I wanted. Nora became mine, the secret I kept hidden because a Falcone daughter would never let it be known she'd bound herself to a man ranked beneath her. Yet happiness never followed.

On my name day I asked for nothing but a quiet hour with her. Instead she told me, "I'm buried in business. Can you stop bothering me?"

Later I saw the photographs going around, the ones Lorenzo's people posted like trophies. He and Nora had gone up to the mountains to ski that same day.

And there was more. When a stomach ulcer had me doubled over and I asked her to come with me to the doctor, one of ours, a made physician who asked no questions, she brushed me off. "I'm not a doctor. If it hurts, go get it seen to. Why are you telling me?"

Not long after, I saw her there myself. Standing beside Lorenzo, who'd come in for nothing worse than a cold.

Then there was the anniversary I planned to surprise her. On the road back, it happened. A matter on the road, the kind that in our world may or may not be an accident.

The doctor called her, the call that had to be answered, blood on the line, asking her to come and give the word for my surgery.

Her answer? "Is he dead? If not, don't bother me."

In the background I heard Lorenzo's voice, bright and pleased with himself. "Nora, look at that. The lights over the water. This trip was worth every mile."

When the line went dead my body was drenched in blood, half the bed dark with it.

I could still feel the twisting pain in my chest as I lay there and died. Even now the memory alone made it hard to breathe.

I pressed a hand over my aching heart and let out a pale, bitter laugh.

Nora, if my love is such a burden to you, then I'll never love you again.

That night Adriana and I didn't linger. We went back to the estate early.

The next morning I surfaced from sleep and reached for my phone to check the hour.

The first thing waiting for me was a message from Lorenzo.

He'd sent a photograph of Nora asleep in his place, with a line beneath it.

[Lorenzo: Nora stayed over at my house last night to keep me company.]

I looked at it without a trace of feeling and sent back one word.

[Me: Oh.]

I gave him nothing more, but he wasn't finished.

A moment later came another photo. Breakfast this time.

[Lorenzo: Nora made me breakfast this morning. She even did the eggs in little hearts, just for me.]

Nora had never set foot in a kitchen the entire time she was mine.

She used to say, "I'm the principessa of my blood. My people spoiled me rotten, and I'm not about to lower myself now that I'm with you."

So to take care of her, I'd gone and learned the work myself, hours spent learning every dish she loved. As long as I was near, she never once ate anything cold or gone stale.

Knowing she'd gone to all that trouble for Lorenzo turned every one of those hours into the cruelest joke I'd ever been dealt.

I looked at his message, didn't answer, and set the phone down to finish eating.

Five minutes later a message came from Nora herself.

She said nothing about the night before.

Instead it read:

[Nora: Those meatballs you made last time weren't bad. Make me some today. I'll be waiting at the office.]

Then, right after, another.

[Nora: Oh, and don't forget. No cilantro.]

Dominic's POV

The moment her message came through, my expression darkened.

Nora had no quarrel with cilantro. She loved it, in truth. She used to order an extra portion whenever we sat down to a plate of pasta at the back table of the family's restaurant.

Still, I sat with it a moment before I answered.

[Me: Alright.]

After sending it, I opened the delivery service one of the Family's fronts ran, picked some home-style dish at random, and had it sent straight to her.

Later that evening, once the books were closed and the day's business was put to bed, I went out to dinner with Adriana.

But the moment we stepped into the place we'd reserved, a quiet corner room the owner kept open for our blood, I saw Nora walking in with Lorenzo. Arm in arm, both of them wearing those easy, untroubled smiles.

When she saw us, Nora instinctively let go of his arm and came over. The thin gold bracelet on her wrist caught the low light as her hand moved.

Lorenzo's face shifted for half a breath before he followed, smiling. "What a coincidence. Though it seems we're late. No tables left. You wouldn't mind if we shared yours?"

Before either of us could answer, Nora seated herself right beside me, unbothered, as if the chair had always been hers.

Adriana's eyes widened. Without a word she rose and swapped places with her. "What are you thinking? Sitting me next to your first love. How is that supposed to work?"

Now across from me, Nora looked faintly annoyed, as though she were waiting for me to say something.

I didn't meet her eyes. I handed the menu to Lorenzo. "Here, Lorenzo. Order what you like. My sister and I have already settled on ours."

He took it with a lazy smile. "Dominic, your cooking is something else. Better than anything a kitchen like this puts out."

The comment confirmed what I'd already suspected. Nora had asked me to cook for him. Not for herself.

I only smiled, faint and empty, and said nothing.

Adriana, half proud and half teasing, cut in. "Oh, you have no idea. He took it into his head to go and learn to cook, of all things. Only man in the whole class. I figured he'd quit out of embarrassment before the week was out. He didn't. Now he handles himself in the kitchen the way he handles himself everywhere else. Whatever woman he ends up bound to is going to be spoiled rotten."

Nora had been smiling faintly. At that, the smile thinned. She took a slow sip of tea and asked, calm as still water, "Dominic. Are you thinking about settling down now?"

I looked at her, thrown by the sudden turn.

I remembered what she'd said the other day. I gave a small nod. "I'm twenty-six now. It's about time I started thinking about it. If you know anyone suitable, Nora, feel free to make the introduction."

"So you're finally coming around!" Adriana was more delighted than anyone at the table. "I've been trying to arrange something for you for ages, and you always turned me down flat. Now that you're ready, I'll find you the right woman if it's the last thing I do."

As Adriana finished, Nora's lips pressed into a tight line. Her eyes fixed on mine, as if searching for something buried in my face. Her hand had gone to the gold bracelet again, turning it slowly.

Lorenzo caught the change in her mood and laughed lightly. "Dominic, you're a lucky man to have a sister who cares like that. I'm honestly envious. But you know, I think Nora would suit you just fine. What do you say?"

"Don't say things like that." Nora cut in sharp, brows drawing together. There was a note of reprimand in it, but her face carried more weariness than heat.

I nodded my agreement. "Exactly. I see Nora as a sister, nothing more. Please don't make jokes like that, Lorenzo." I paused, then added, "Besides, I think you and Nora make the better pair."

The smile vanished from her face in an instant, a thin layer of anger settling in its place. She let out a short, humorless laugh. "Is that so. Then how about I introduce someone to you? Would you actually take the time to meet her?"

"Of course. My thanks in advance, Nora." My smile was bright, and I answered without a moment's hesitation.

For the next few days, I didn't reach out to her, and she didn't reach out to me.