Page 115 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

On the other end of the phone, I can tell Vittoria’s crying. “I’m really sorry. I’ve been worried sick about you ever since I was taken. I wanted to contact you so many times, but I haven’t had a phone.”

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I’m handling him. Nothing about the relationship is easy. But then… You know my brother now. Apparently you’re marrying him.”

“Yes.”

“When I tell you that Renzo is very much a man cut from the same cloth, I think you can get a decent picture of what that means.”

I can. It’s easy to imagine what it means, in fact. And that’s why I know it’s not as simple as her being happy or unhappy.

“You’re safe?”

“He would never hurt me. Physically.”

My stomach goes tight. That is how I feel about Ciro. I know that I’m physically safe with him, but emotionally…we’re navigating a strange landscape, and I don’t know if we’re going to find our way across it.

But both Vittoria and I have one thing in common. We weren’t given very much as far as emotional resources, and we’ve come a long way in spite of it. And I have faith that we can take what we have now, and fashion something great out of it.

When I get off the phone with Vittoria, I feel somewhat renewed. At least I can understand where she’s coming from. I’m not so angry at her now. Though that might come from my changing relationship with Ciro.

“How does she sound to you?” he asks.

“She sounded good.”

It actually warms me to hear his concern for his sister. I want to see the depth of him. The emotion. He’s so stoic so often. And yet I know that it comes from a place of having to protect himself all the time. He’s a man of outstanding moral character, when you really think about it. All things considered, he’s taken the high road in the best way he can.

He’s done what he could do to fix things; he’s done more than anyone has done for generations, actually, to make the world a safer and better place.

But he himself is a hard man. I recognize it.

I think she’s doing the very best she can. It sounds to me like she’s in an emotional entanglement with her kidnapper.

His eyes meet mine, and I realize very much is the same for me.

I’ve been thinking about the baby. The moment that he said I was his…it became about us too. I want to be his wife.

I like the physical connection between us. And there’s something dark inside of me that’s beginning to crave something more.

“It’s a foolish thing to do. Men like Renzo…they can’t love anyone,” he says.

His eyes land on me, hard. I can see that it’s a warning. But I’m not going to let him get away with that.

“You don’t think they can love anyone?”

“No. Not really.”

“So you’re not going to love our child?”

He’s silent for a long moment. “I don’t even know what love is.”

“I think it might be something along the lines of burning an entire criminal empire to the ground in order to build something new from the ashes, in order to create a safe and secure world, not just for our child, but for other children. I think, Ciro, whether you want to call it that or not, that might be love.”

I take a deep breath. “Now. You should show me to my room. I’m feeling tired.”

He doesn’t argue with me.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN