Page 99 of The Cost of Silence

Matteo carries leftovers like they’re national artifacts.

Eventually, the apartment quiets.

Isabella heads to the kitchen with her mother to store food in the fridge, and I take the opportunity to step outside to the balcony for some air.

The door slides open behind me.

I expect Isabella, but it’s her mother.

She stands next to me, her gaze on the city lights. “The decorations…” she says softly, “They’re beautiful.”

I shrug. “She wanted them. If it makes her happy, then it’s right.”

She looks up at me, eyes searching, piercing. “You’re in love with her.”

It isn’t a question, so I don’t treat it like one. “I am,” I say. There’s no use denying it. Not anymore. “I never saw it coming. But… she’s part of me now.”

Her mother breathes slow, steady. Then, with more courage than most people ever show, she nods. “Then listen carefully, Nico Mancini,” she says. “My daughter is brave, but she’s breakable. She loves hard. She trusts deeply. If you hurt her, you’ll destroy something irreplaceable.”

I nod once. “I know.”

“And?”

“And I won’t.”

Her shoulders drop slightly, not relaxed, but accepting. “I believe you,” she says finally. “Against my better judgment… I believe you. But if you let me down, I’ll hunt you down with my heaviest pan and beat you with it. Mafia Don or not.”

“Not. My father spent the last ten years of his life pulling us away from that life, so we could be the men my mother wanted. ISM Holdings is clean and it’s because of him and his love for her.”

“She must have been quite a woman.”

I nod, looking across the skyline and feeling the ghosts of their love around me. “She was, and I miss her every day. I wish she and my father could have met Isabella. They would’ve adored her.”

Her hand touches my arm, and I look down at this fierce mother. “I’m sorry for your loss, Nico. Grief is a brutal thing, likean ache you can’t get rid of. Some days it’s easier and others it is not, but it’s a sign of love and, for that, we’re lucky.”

“Agreed.”

“The men who came after Isabella, will you deal with them?”

A hard look shuts down my face. “They’ll be dealt with, and you have my word they’ll never hurt her again.”

“Thank you. She’s my heart.”

I don’t say it, but I’m pretty damn sure she’s mine too.

When Isabella steps out to join us, her mom wraps an arm around her shoulders, and I watch the two most important women in the world, mine, side by side.

And in that moment, I know with absolute certainty: Whatever comes next, danger, betrayal, fights, revelations, I’d burn the world to protect the family sitting at that table tonight.

And I’m not afraid of it anymore.

It feels like home.Something I haven’t been able to say about any gathering since my mother died.

“I should get going. It’s been a long day,” Mrs. Romano says.

I clear my throat, trying not to sound like I’m choking on my own emotions. “Rossi,” I call gently.

He stands, instantly alert, putting his head through the door to the balcony.