Chapter 4Too Late, Don Amato

I changed our flight. Moved it up to three o'clock that afternoon.

Once the passenger details were confirmed, I moved straight into the last of what needed doing before we left for good.

At nine, I made breakfast in that house for the last time.

The tiramisu Dante had brought home the night before was still sitting in the fridge.

Nico pulled it out himself and dropped it straight into the trash.

At ten, the Rossi family's lawyer called to tell me the settlement process was complete and asked where he should wire the funds.

"To my own account," I said.

While I was finishing the last of the preparations, Bianca's newest post crossed my feed.

[The Don's gold watch is incredible. Gabe adores it—says he wishes he could keep it forever.]

Nico saw it too. He didn't say anything about it. He just looked up.

"Mom. Let's go."

By one, we'd finished lunch and were dragging our bags toward the airport.

We still had two full hours before the time Dante thought he was meeting us.

The whole ride, Nico held my phone, scrolling through photos of him and Dante.

His christening, Dante holding him high, showing him off to the whole Family.

Age three, the day Dante first showed him the gold watch, the two of them posing together with it cupped between their hands.

And this year—before Bianca and Gabe—a video of Dante teaching him to ride a horse.

He watched them over and over. He didn't cry. The grief just filled every inch of the car anyway.

He was too young to grasp why his father had changed overnight, pouring everything into someone else's boy.

But after the past month, he had slowly learned to live with it.

I sat beside him and said nothing at all.

At two, we were about to clear security when Dante's call came through.

"Elena, tell Nico I'm sorry—Gabe's hurt, I have to take him to the hospital."

"I'm not sure I'll make it by three. If you can't wait, just go on without me."

"Tell Nico I'm sorry!"

He hung up so fast he didn't even hear the boarding call in the background.

"Let's go," I said, taking Nico's hand.

He nodded, selected all the photos and videos on the phone and deleted them in a single sweep.

Three o'clock exactly, the plane lifted off on schedule.

I fit the headphones over Nico's ears and looked out at the blue stretching past the window, and something in my chest, pulled tight for so long, finally let go.

Goodbye, Dante Amato.

At that same moment, Dante left Bianca crying in the hospital and sprinted toward the amusement park.