I had always heard that Luca came from the Valente outfit, old blood with ties to the military before they turned to the law. Discipline was carved into bone in that family. Reserved, controlled, almost cold in the way he carried himself. His background wasn't any less formidable than the Falcones'. If anything, it rivaled them. A consigliere-grade mind with enough connections to broker peace between crews that wanted each other dead.
And yet, there he was, standing alone in the dark outside a Falcone compound, smoking like he had nowhere else to be.
Maybe he sensed me watching, because after a moment, he slowly lifted his head.
Our eyes met across the distance.
He exhaled a thin stream of smoke, the haze drifting into the night air. Then, almost imperceptibly, the corner of his lips curved into a faint, crooked smile. It wasn't playful. It wasn't mocking. It felt… resolute.
Without another moment, he straightened, flicked the cigarette aside, got into his car, and drove off.
I stood there, watching his taillights fade past the estate wall and into the darkness until they disappeared completely.
To my surprise, something inside me shifted, just slightly, like a quiet ripple beneath still water.
By the time Dante finally came home, the sky had already begun to pale with the first hint of dawn.
The moment he stepped through the door, his expression twisted into a frown. His nose wrinkled in obvious displeasure.
"Adriana, can you try acting like a decent woman for once?" he snapped without preamble. "You stink of smoke. It's disgusting. Quit that habit."
He had always hated it when I smoked.
But I hadn't always been like this. I only picked it up after we were bound together, after the warmth between us had faded into silence, into cold indifference, into a life that felt more like routine than anything real. Days blurred into each other. Conversations became scarce. I needed something, anything, to break through that suffocating stillness.
Even if it was just the sharp burn of nicotine in my lungs.
I said nothing. I simply stubbed the cigarette out and walked past him toward the bathroom.
He followed immediately.
"Did you hear me?" he demanded, irritation already creeping into his voice.