Caterina
“Luca’s stable.”Dante’s voice carried none of the usual roughness.“Sleeping now.The doctor says he’ll be fine in a few weeks.”
I nodded.Took another drink.Felt Dante’s attention sharpen as he registered that I wasn’t speaking, wasn’t moving toward him, wasn’t doing anything except standing here with a glass of his scotch and looking at him like he was a problem I needed to solve.
The silence stretched.Became something that filled the space between us with unspoken words and complicated truths.
I’d proven myself tonight.Proven I could handle violence, could execute necessary brutality, could stand beside him in the darkness his world required.But I’d also realized something during the firefight and desperate rescue operation.
I couldn’t go back to being controlled.Couldn’t return to the version of our marriage where Dante made all the decisions and I followed orders and my agency existed only in the spaces he allowed me.Not after tonight.
Something fundamental had shifted.And we both needed to acknowledge it before we could move forward.
“We need to talk.”My voice came out steadier than I’d expected.Clear.Certain.The voice of someone who’d made a decision and intended to see it through.
Dante’s expression didn’t change, but I saw something flicker in his eyes.Wariness, maybe.Or recognition that this conversation was inevitable.“All right.”
I set down my glass with deliberate care.Turned to face him fully, letting him see everything -- the exhaustion, the determination, the new hardness that had settled into my bones.“I love you.”
The words hung between us.Simple.True.Terrifying to say out loud.
His jaw tightened.Just slightly, but I’d learned to read his micro-expressions.“Caterina --”
“I’m not finished.”I held up one hand.“I love you.I want you.I want this marriage to be real instead of just a political arrangement.But I can’t live the way we’ve been living.”
Something dangerous crossed his face.That predatory stillness that meant he was processing a threat and calculating his response.“Explain.”
“You control everything.”I kept my voice level, factual, laying out observations instead of accusations.“What I wear.Where I go.Who I see.Every aspect of my life gets filtered through your decisions.And I understood it, at first.Understood you needed to establish dominance, needed to make sure I knew the boundaries.But tonight changed things.”
“How?”The word came out clipped.
“I’m not just your wife anymore.I’m your partner.I proved that in the warehouse when I killed for you, and for my family.”I moved closer, closing the distance between us to maybe three feet.Close enough to see the muscle jumping in his jaw, the way his hands had curled into loose fists at his sides.“I can’t go back to being someone who needs permission to make decisions.Can’t go back to being controlled like I’m your possession instead of your equal.”
“You’re mine.”His voice dropped to that dangerous register that made my skin prickle.“That hasn’t changed.Won’t change.”
“I know.”I held his gaze, refusing to look away even though every instinct screamed at me to submit, to back down, to stop pushing before I provoked the violence I could feel coiling in his frame.“I want to be yours.But I need to be yours in a way that doesn’t erase who I am.What I’m capable of.”
“What are you asking for?”
“Partnership.”The word felt heavy.Important.“Real partnership, where you respect my intelligence and my capability.Where I have agency in decisions that affect us both, and I’m consulted instead of ordered.Where my voice matters.”
His hands flexed at his sides.Open.Closed.Open again.The gesture betrayed agitation he was trying to contain.“And if I say no?”
My heart was hammering against my ribs so hard I could hear it in my ears.But I’d committed to this conversation, to this ultimatum, and backing down now would mean accepting a life I could no longer tolerate.“Then I walk away.”
The silence that followed felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff and realizing there was nothing beneath but air and the promise of impact.
Dante’s expression went completely still.Not calm -- stillness wasn’t the same as calm -- but that predatory freeze that came before he struck.His eyes had gone dark, the warm brown almost black in the low light.I could see him processing the threat, calculating whether I meant it, weighing the cost of calling my bluff versus the cost of losing me.
“You’d leave.”He said it like he was testing the words, seeing how they felt in his mouth.
“I don’t want to.”My voice cracked slightly on the admission.“God, Dante, I don’t want to.But I can’t be caged.Not anymore.Not after tonight showed me what I’m capable of when I’m trusted to act instead of ordered to obey.”
His jaw clenched so tight I heard his teeth grind.His hands had gone completely still at his sides, but the tension in his shoulders said he was fighting every instinct to close the distance, to pin me against the wall, to use dominance and desire to shut down this conversation before it could threaten his control.
But he didn’t move.Just stood there, watching me with eyes that promised consequences I couldn’t predict.
And I stood my ground, holding his gaze, letting him see that I meant every word.That this wasn’t manipulation or a power play.That I was giving him a choice.
