“No,per favore, don’t repeat what you said at lunch.” He pleaded, pulling away slightly. His hands framed my face, his thumbs tracing lingering caresses on my skin. “I acted like a bastard, and that’s another regret I’ll have to live with,” he confessed, and I bit my tongue to keep from interrupting him, because I might never get another chance to see this version of Camillo. Vulnerable, human.“Diowrites straight with crooked lines, Piccola Furetta, and He brought us together on the same page. I don’t deserve even a sigh from you, yet I want everything. Everything.” His face crossed the distance between us, and his lips met mine. Slow, warm, gentle, in a kiss that filled my chest with a joy beyond words.
The kiss was followed by silence. Calm, knowing. In that moment, I didn’t want him to touch me, not in a sexual way, and something told me he shared that feeling.
It was comfort. Being in that bed, close to his chest, was the solace I’d craved for the past three days. I’d needed that embrace. The security of his presence telling me I could breathe. Because that was exactly what he made me feel in that moment: safe.
Yet, dark thoughts still gnawed at the back of my mind. What if he decided to keep his promise? What if I gave myself to him once more and, once again, he left me alone in a room, feeling dirty and unwanted? What if life betrayed me again at the next turn?
His fingers began to trace slow circles on the back of my neck, and my eyelids grew heavy. Sleep pulled me gently away from reality and my fears. Before everything grew too dark and still, I recalled my father’s face and Lester’s blue eyes.
Death was the only certainty. Why waste time being afraid to live?
Chapter 45
Camillo Vicari
August, 2025
La Sorgente Beach
Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy
The sun shone down on her hair, and I was certain that not even gold could replicate that color. It was like melted stars.
I liked her.Cazzo, did I like her.
I loved her sass, her natural cheerfulness, her sweet southern accent. The delicate shape of her eyes and the blonde of her hair. The way she smiled and the taste of her mouth. I loved every little bit of her and couldn’t understand how I could have let that happen.
Claiming her for myself had been a mistake. It threw me face-first into the truth I’d been trying to escape: I felt alive again, thanks to Daisy. My heart pounded wildly in her mere presence.It wasn’t just lust. It was something deeper and uncontrollable. Something I didn’t believe I deserved, but didn’t intend to let slip away.
Last night, the image of my bambino had come to haunt me again. As had become the routine, I saw him in my dreams, alive and grown. His little arms wide open as he ran toward me. His jade eyes identical to mine. In one instant, I crouched down to receive him. In the next, I shot him in the head.
Every night for the past eight years, I had begged him for forgiveness. A forgiveness I would never have, because there are crimes beyond redemption, and a man must live with them forever, serving his sentence.
But the last thing I had expected was to be awakened from my torment by Daisy.
Waking from that nightmare to find her there was like staring into the eyes of Guilt itself, watching as it pointed an accusing finger directly at my heart. Her understanding words turned my remorse into a thicket of sharp thorns and made me feel like the most selfish of human beings.
How could I want someone so pure so badly? How could I want to hold that woman tightly when my son’s blood was still dripping from my hands?
I would never believe that sincere regret was enough to erase what I had done. And I wondered what she would do if she discovered the whole truth. Would she run away? Would she hate me? Would she be disgusted by me? Anything was possible. Still, I didn’t feel capable of letting her go.
The mere thought that my Piccola Furetta might go far away from me stole the air from my lungs.
I fixed my gaze on the yellow bikini she was wearing. It hugged her body perfectly, revealing her modest curves, and sent shivers down my spine. She was sitting next to me on the sand, her legs slightly bent and her arms resting on her knees. The breeze blew her hair back, while her peridot eyes scanned the sea in front of us, and the morning sun kissed her golden skin.
I looked around us.
Luca had done a splendid job. The beach was empty, just as he’d intended. I wanted to be alone with Daisy. To seize that opportunity. To make amends with her and with life.
I hadn’t done anything else these past few days but try to find a way to repair the damage. I’d given her space.
I knew how much I’d hurt her and how much time she’d needed to recover. I was grateful to Luca and Donatella Condello for that. When I’d seen her on the cameras, running off to the housekeeper’s cottage, I’d called my head of security and asked him to go after her for me.
It hadn’t been easy to admit to Luca what I’d done. He was like an uncle. He’d been in my life for as long as I could remember and had always looked out for all of us. He was famiglia, even though we weren’t related by blood. Seeing the disappointment on his face when I revealed how I’d treated Daisy after taking her for myself hadn’t been pleasant. Hearinghim describe the state in which he’d found her hadn’t been any better.
After my parents died because I’d chosen the wrong woman, and after I’d put a bullet in my own son’s brain, I didn’t believe I deserved any happiness. But the truth was, it had appeared in the form of that American woman. Daisy had come along and revived a part of me. And if life had put her in my path even after everything, maybe… maybe I was meant to keep her.
The day before, I’d believed for a moment that I’d lost her for good. When she begged me not to let us be more than that, it was as if a sharp claw were tearing my insides apart. However, meeting her eyes in the middle of the night, holding her in my arms, close to my chest, pulling me out of a nightmare that had haunted me for far too long, had filled me with that hope I didn’t deserve.
