Page 46 of Vows Made in Silence

“Find him.”

My voice is low. Final. “I want every street, every rat hole, every goddamn inch of this city covered.” Turk nods, already moving, barking into the comms.

But I’m not done.

“When you find him,” I say coldly, “you put two in his knees, one in his spine. He’s leaving in a fucking body bag.”

The soldiers hear it. They feel it. That’s not just a command—it’s a sentence.

Gallo crossed a line.

And now?

I’m going to erase him.

I clench my teeth. "Double the guards. Hold the hallway.

Outside, more gunfire crackles like thunder. War has arrived.

And this time, it has a name: Moretti.

On the drive back to the safe house, with Daniel curled against my chest like a heartbeat I never knew I was missing, I can’t let him go.

Not because he’s fragile—though right now, he is.

But because if I do, I might fall apart.

I’ve bled for this life. Killed for it. Buried my softness so deep that even I forgot what it felt like to love something more than power.

Until now.

The warmth of his small body against mine is a weight I didn’t know I needed. A tether to something real.

Something of mine. His breath evens out. He trusts me. That blind, aching trust cuts deeper than any blade ever could.

And that’s what terrifies me.

Because now that I have him—I can’t lose him.

Which is why my mind keeps circling back to the one thing that doesn’t add up. The one fracture in all this blood-soaked symmetry:

What does Giuliana know… that even she doesn’t know?

Why did Vittorio—my father—protect her instead of eliminating the threat?

Why did Gallo keep her alive for all these years, even when it would've been easier to make her vanish?

Why did the Families let her go when they've burned people for less?

What was buried in that gallery, in her past… in her?

What secret did they think she carried—so dangerous, so damning—that it was safer for everyone if she forgot it?

And if she remembers?

If she says the wrong thing to the wrong person?

This war we're in now… will look like a mercy.