18. I Will Haunt You #2
“Dante Caruso, say I promise .”
“No.”
“I will haunt you if you don’t.”
He laughed. “Go ahead. I’m not afraid of ghosts.”
“Please … Dante. I promise never to climb a ladder again.”
“I promise, only because I know you’re going to outlive me …”
He was forced to eat his words eight years later.
His beautiful Melissa in a coffin because of him had marked his soul and heart forever.
Autumn leaves had fallen without her by his side, and he swore he would remain alone until his dying day.
He wasn’t concerned about the promise he had given Melissa; he wasn’t capable of loving another woman, so the promise had been null and void, just like his life was.
So, he had let himself forget that sad memory and had let his life pass him by in a blur, with their children growing older and making lives for themselves.
In the quietness of the air, Dante thought he heard the sound of someone weeping. Thinking he was imagining things, he pushed it out of his mind until he gradually heard the weeping fade away.
Droplets hit the windowpane behind him, having him swivel in his chair.
The beautiful, sunny day had turned cloudy, and the sky was beginning to rain.
It was like watching teardrops quietly slide down the window until it pounded and beat at the glass.
Melissa had once told him that God showed His anger with thunder, but it was the angels you had to tread softly around, for their tears could actually touch you.
“Darling, you can be mad all you want,” he said out loud to the empty room. “I’m not afraid of ghosts.”
No, it was a black-haired woman who terrified him.
“Nadia … Nadia!”
Nadia had been walking at a practical jog, trying to get the hell out of there in case Dante or one of his men came after her.
And even though she had come to care for the boy who was yelling after her, she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to keep a brave enough face.
However, having to wait for the elevator gave her no choice.
“We found your purse,” Leo said, slightly out of breath from having to run to catch up with her.
“Oh …” Nadia took the outstretched purse. “Thanks.”
Leo’s brows drew together, not missing the hurt she was desperately trying to hide. “You’re not planning to see my farther again … are you?”
She could only slowly shake her head, afraid her voice would betray her and the crying that she just barely held at bay would start.
When the elevator door dinged open, she walked through, raising her hand to wave the boy goodbye … for the last time.
Dante stared down at the folder Sal had given him.
Sal was known to the world as The Great Salvatore, and to the government as the biggest pain in their asses.
He might’ve been a world-renowned hacker, but to Dante, he was Salvatore Lastra, the boy he had picked up off the street many moons ago.
It was the exact person whom Nadia had spoken of that had Dante opening his wallet to give her the donation to Moonbeam.
He had been good to the kid, arguably better and more of a father to Sal than he had been to his own kids, but that was because looking at Sal never reminded him of her .
In return of the good fortune Dante had given him, Sal had joined the Caruso family and did things for him none of his other men could possibly dream of doing behind a computer screen.
The folder he stared down at that contained probably everything he ever needed to know about Nadia Brooks was one of them.
Opening it, he noticed the first thing that was written about Nadia was that she was of Greek descent.
That explained a lot of the similarities yet differences between them, like why her tanned skin was more bronze and why her athletic body looked like it had been chiseled.
However, that was as far as he had gotten when his door barged open for the second time.
“What the fuck did you do?”
Dante looked up from his desk to see his youngest son. “What I did?” he asked harshly, knowing he must’ve passed Nadia on her way out. “She didn’t give me the chance to say or do anything!”
“Well, I certainly didn’t see you chasing after her!”
Even though his son’s response might’ve been harsh itself, it was true …
“I just needed a fucking minute to gather my thoughts.”
Frustrated at his predicament, he hadn’t known what to feel, especially before she had walked in that door.
After that night they had spent together on the yacht, he had been trying his damnedest to ignore her, even though it was impossible and proved itself so when it had blown up.
Even the smallest interaction had him breaking his will, although he blamed it on the immense pressure and predicament they had landed in.
Dante had told himself that he would figure it out when they got back to Kansas City, but she hadn’t even given him a chance to do so.
She had decided it all on her own, and sure, he should have been faster on the uptake, but it had been a long fucking time since he had been faced with these kinds of feelings, and he was rusty.
It really wasn’t until he had just watched her walk out that fucking door, and knowing his late wife, Melissa, would approve of her, that he finally accepted his feelings.
“What is that?” Leo asked, looking down at his desk to the folder.
Unfortunately, there was no hiding it, as his son had already seen her name at the top of the page. “I asked Sal for—”
“You didn’t even need to do that,” Leo hissed, knowing exactly what it was. “She would have told you anything you wanted to know about her, if you had fucking cared to ask.”
He had been curious, as a father would be, with what they had talked about, and he had expected their conversation to be about Leo. He hadn’t expected, however, the possibility they might’ve talked about her.
“So, that’s what you two talked about? Nadia?’
“Partly,” his son admitted, keeping the rest of their conversation hidden. “But if you finish reading that, you’ll be making a mistake.” He nodded toward the folder. “Whatever is in there, you should want to hear it from her.”
Slowly, Dante closed the folder, knowing his son was right.
When a satisfied Leo went to leave his office, he quickly got out of his chair. “Son, wait.”
Leo halted.
Meeting him on the other side, he stared down at his son.
Out of all of his children, being around Leo hurt the most. Before the accident, it had hurt because he was the most like Melissa, his kindness and pure heart a constant reminder of what he had lost. After the accident, however, it hurt from how much he had changed.
He no longer resembled Melissa, and that was what broke him, because now his choices had cost his son an eye, like it had cost his wife’s life.
Looking into his ocean eye, he remembered Nadia’s questions she had asked of Leo …
“Do you plan on working for your father?”
“I used to think so.”
“And now?”
“And now I don’t know.”
Dante had left the table because he had known exactly what his son’s thoughts were, and he hadn’t been a good enough father in the moment, but he wanted to try now.
“I want you to know that you could have lost both of your eyes, and I still would have found you a place in the family , if that’s what you wanted.”
Leo, even though he had too kind of a soul, had looked up to his older brothers.
It had been their footsteps that he wanted to follow, not his father’s.
And while they all knew he wasn’t built for the job before, him losing his eye was what made him think he couldn’t join.
Little did he know yet that was exactly why Leo was going to be made one day.
He just didn’t know it yet. Leo still needed to learn that he was no less than he was before.
In actuality, he was greater. That, though, was going to be a long road for him to find out.
Dante, however, was going to start doing everything in his power, as a father, for him now.
“Understand?” Dante asked when Leo simply stood there in shock from his words.
Leo finally nodded.
Reaching out, Dante did something he should have done every day since his wife’s passing. He hugged his son. “I love you.”
The rain that had yet to let up finally seemed to ease.