The nobody from a dirt-poor fishing village in Southern Italy. The one who was too proud, too ashamed to ask anyone for help. I remembered how he used to sit alone in the back rooms of the social club my father let him sweep, eating stale bread because it was all he could afford. His hair had been dry and brittle, his face pale, his shoulders hunched under the weight of hunger and quiet humiliation. A kid with shirt cuffs too short, always tugging them down over his wrists.
I remembered the day he collapsed during a pickup game behind the compound.
Everyone else froze, unsure what to do.
I was the one who ran to him. I carried him to the Family doctor myself, refusing to leave his side. That was the moment I truly understood how bad things were for him. From then on, I made sure he never went hungry again. I paid for his meals, helped him get back on his feet, stood beside him when he had nothing. My father, Don Salvatore, took pity on him because I asked. Brought him in as a low-level associate. Gave him a name that meant something.
And somewhere along the way, we fell in love.
Or at least, I thought we did.
And Giada?
She had never been just a colleague or an outsider.
She was his past. His childhood sweetheart. The girl he had loved long before I ever entered his life. They had supposedly broken up years ago, their story finished and buried.
But I guess some stories never really end.
Around us, the crowd began to murmur, whispers spreading like wildfire through the ballroom of the Valente estate.
"God, poor Seraphina… She just gave everything to those kids, and now he does this to her?"
"Didn't they agree not to have children at all? And then he goes and adopts two behind her back? That's insane."
"And now that the kids are heading off to the Ivy League, he doesn't even bother pretending anymore."
The voices blurred together, but every word cut deep, each one confirming the truth I could no longer deny.
"I think those twins are Nico's biological kids, with that Sorrentino woman," someone muttered under their breath, just loud enough for the people nearby to hear.
"Is there even a doubt?" another voice chimed in immediately, sharper, more certain. "Why else would he be so eager to push Seraphina into transferring all the territory to them? This was planned from the start."