Finally, I stop and turn to look at him. He’s right here, isn’t he?
“How do you know all this?”
Chapter Twenty Three
Antonio
Her question hangs in the air between us.
I feel it hit me in the ribs, right where the truth always lands—right where it hurts, right where you can’t dodge it without looking like a coward.
For two weeks I’ve been thinking of what this would be like, coming face-to-face with her again. A dozen versions of it ran through my head every day.
None of them was this version.
Standing in her apartment, with her in gym clothes and bare-faced and furious and brilliant, I know none of those other versions matter.
This is the moment where I either tell her the truth or I lose her forever.
And I may lose her anyway.
I don’t know what happens after. I don’t know if she’ll look at me like I’m a monster. I don’t know if she’ll ever want to see me again. I don’t know if I’m about to watch the last fragile thread between us snap clean through.
But I owe her the truth.
Because I came into her life like a wrecking ball, risked her job, and she still didn’t slam the door in my face when I came knocking.
I hold her gaze and keep my voice even.
“We know,” I say, “because if the Bellandis move into the Northeast, they’ll be moving right into our territory.”
She goes still in that way that tells me she’s processing something that changes everything.
Silence stretches.
I don’t fill it. I let her take all the time she needs.
Then she speaks, and her voice is quieter, more careful.
“Your territory,” she repeats. “You mean… your family’s territory?”
There’s no drama in the question. No theatrical outrage.
Just inevitability.
I watch her eyes close for a brief second, like she’s forcing herself not to flinch.
“Of course,” she whispers, and the word sounds like it hurts her. Like it confirms the thing she didn’t want to confirm. “Of course, that’s why you’re trying to acquire Northstar as well.”
She opens her eyes again and looks at me like she’s seeing me in a different light. Or clearly for the very first time, and she’s trying to decide which parts are real and which parts are costume.
My chest tightens.
“No,” I say immediately.
She blinks, not expecting that.
“No,” I repeat, firmer. “That’s not why.”