Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Three days later, the Moretti yacht arrived to collect their prodigal son
When the family representatives saw Alessio and Daniela disembark arm in arm, marriage certificate in hand, visible relief washed over their faces Crisis averted. Family honor preserved.
As the vessel pulled away from Virella’s harbor, black smoke billowing from its stack, Alessio stood alone on the deck, turning his wedding ring over and over in his fingers.
This wasn’t the ring he’d chosen. That one–the masterpiece he’d spent six months designing with Italy’s finest jeweler for Noemi–now lay somewhere on the Mediterranean floor. He’d thrown it overboard the morning after Daniela’s trap had closed around him.
“I’ll love you forever,” he’d promised Noemi on their wedding day, tears streaming down his face, “Nothing will ever come between us.”
Every promise, broken. Every vow, shattered.
With mechanical movements, he removed this meaningless replacement ring and let it follow its predecessor into the churning wake.
Goodbye, amore mio. This time, truly goodbye.
Back on the island, Cosimo practically bounced into their bedroom, grinning like a teenager.
“He’s gone!” He swept Noemi into his arms, spinning her around. “That pathetic excuse for a man is finally out of our lives!”
“Cosimo!” She laughed, batting at his chest. “You’re acting like a five–year–old who just got extra dessert.”
“Can you blame me? No more lurking in shadows, no more surprise gifts, no more… competition.”
She bit back a smile. She knew exactly what he’d been up to–the staged conversation at the hospital, the destroyed letter, all of it. Her brilliant, ruthless husband, reduced to petty schemes by jealousy.
She found it oddly endearing.
“There was never any competition,” she said softly, tracing his jaw. “Not really.”
Ánd it was true. The moment she’d chosen to live instead of die, to love instead of grieve, Alessio had become nothing more than a ghost from another
life.
Seven months later, their daughter arrived during a fierce Mediterranean storm–as if the universe itself was announcing her significance.
“Naemia,” Cosimo whispered, cradling the tiny bundle. “Our little star.”
The name was perfect–echoing both her mother’s name and her father’s cosmic nature. Like a celestial body in Cosimo’s universe, she was singular, irreplaceable, destined.
At the baptism, Noemi’s mother pulled Cosimo aside with obvious reluctance,
“Donna Moretti begged me to give you this.” She held out a sealed envelope. “I told her no good would come of it, but…”
“I’ll handle it,” Cosimo assured her, pocketing the letter.
Later, alone in his study, he skimmed Alessio’s fevered confession. Mental breakdowns. Violent confrontations with Daniela. Their son traumatized into silence. A family destroying itself from within.
I don’t ask for forgiveness. Only that you know I’m paying for my sins. Every nightmare, every loss, every moment of agony–I deserve them all.
Cosimo fed the pages to the fireplace without a second thought.
“Darling?” Noemi called from the nursery. “Come quick! She’s smiling!”
Came
1 Racamo His Deadly Enemy’s Bride
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Chapter 31
He found them bathed in afternoon sunlight his wife and daughter, the two centers of his universe.
“Look at our little star,” Noemi murmured.
“I’m the luckiest man alive,” he said, pulling them close. “To have you both.”
“And I’m the luckiest woman.” She tilted her face up. “To have found you. To have her.”
Outside, the Mediterranean sparkled under the afternoon sun. Somewhere across those waters, in a darkened Sicilian villa, a broken man sat in his wheelchair, staring at photographs of a life he’d destroyed.
But here in Virella, in a house filled with laughter and light, the future stretched ahead–bright, promising, and blessedly free of ghosts.
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