Chapter 18 ROSE #2
My fingers trail along the top of the low stone wall beside us. “She followed her heart. She loved Romeo more than her name. More than her bloodline. What other choice did she have?”
He gives me a look. One of those unreadable Dan expressions. “You say that like it’s easy.”
“It’s not.” I shake my head. “It’s painful. Loving someone you shouldn’t. Someone your family would never accept.”
His jaw tightens just slightly.
I keep talking, not daring to stop now. “But love like that… it changes you. Makes you braver. Even if it breaks you.”
We walk in silence for a few paces, our hands brushing at our sides, the leaves rustling softly above us. Then he hooks his little finger around mine like a secret promise whispered between our skin.
My breath halts. This man is still an enigma to me, but our secret meetings have become the highlight of my day.
The way he cared for me and rescued my bag, he’s like my guardian angel.
An English guardian angel with the most beautiful British accent.
It’s no secret that my family would want me to marry an Italian.
I wonder if they could ever accept a regular man like Dan.
I hold on to his pinky and smile inwardly at my silly thoughts and how I’m getting ahead of myself, but it’s the hopeless romantic in me. Maybe this is my fairy tale.
“I used to wonder,” I whisper, “if love could ever be stronger than fear. But I think it is.”
He stops walking.
I turn, heart thudding, and he looks at me like he’s seeing right through the layers I keep carefully stitched together.
“My hopeless romantic.” He leans in just enough to reach past me and plucks a single pink rose from the bush beside us and carefully strips the thorns with his nail.
My breath catches.
“Fiore mio,” he murmurs, then lifts a hand to my hair, brushing it behind my ear and tucks the flower just above the bruising I’ve hidden. His fingertips graze my hairline, then pause. His hand stills.
I hold my breath as his brow furrows, and he leans closer as if getting a better look.
The warmth in his eyes vanishes. Replaced by dark clouds swirling around his pupils. “Who did this to you?” His voice is low, like gravel and gunpowder. His eyes stay locked on mine.
I’d been careful. I thought it was covered.
“Who did this to you?” he asks again, this time with controlled rage simmering underneath.
“I’m fine.”
“Rose.” His jaw tightens. “Tell me.”
“I—I fell.” I bat his hand away and look down at my sandals, unable to look him in the eye.
He exhales slowly, like he’s reining himself in. “Don’t lie to me. Not about this.” His hand is still hovering near my face, but not touching, like he’s afraid to hurt me more. “I’ll kill the bastard. I’ll kill anyone who lays a hand on you.”
My eyes sting, but I blink the tears back. “It’s nothing.” I step to the side, allowing a couple to pass. “Please don’t make a scene.”
“Was it your brother?” His voice lowers further, like a threat he’s holding back.
I shake my head fast. “No. Elio would never hurt me. Never.”
Dan’s eyes narrow. “Then who?”
I bite my lip. My throat closes up, shame clawing at my neck.
“Whoever it is, you don’t have to protect them, Rose. Tell me.”
I whisper the words like they might shatter if I say them louder. “My father.”
Everything about him stills—his expression, his breathing, the soft breeze rustling his shirt. Then he blinks once, and that darkness in his eyes turns deadly.
The rose he placed in my hair trembles in the breeze. The petals brush my cheek.
He touches the bruise with a gentleness I didn’t know he had. His thumb grazes just beneath it, not applying pressure, but I still flinch. “How often?”
“Not… all the time.” I tug my cardigan sleeve over my hand. “Mostly when he drinks. Or when he thinks someone’s disrespected him.”
I look away, down at the gravel path. “Last night, he was yelling at Mamma. Calling her names. I said something. Told him to stop.”
Dan doesn’t move. Doesn’t breathe. I can feel the storm brewing under his skin, anger rolling off him in waves.
“He came at her,” I whisper, “and I stepped in the way. That’s all…”
His fists curl at his sides, knuckles white. “Don’t dismiss it like it’s nothing.” He curls a finger under my chin and lifts my head, forcing me to look into his dark eyes through my watery gaze. “My brave little flower.”
“Dan,” I whisper.
Birds sing above us. The warm breeze stirs the roses. And suddenly it’s all too much—the pressure building in my chest, the ache in my throat, the way his eyes are still on me as if he’s trying to figure out how broken I really am.
He exhales, like he’s trying to keep the fury from boiling over.
“I’ll kill anyone who hurts you, fiore mio.
” The emotion in his voice is so raw it hurts.
No one’s ever said anything like that to me before.
Not Elio. Not anyone. His fingers slide behind my ear, curling around the rose he placed there. His eyes soften as they meet mine.
“You’re stronger than anyone I know.” He dips his head and presses a kiss to my temple, then peppers kisses along my cheek.
Tingles bloom low in my belly, a strange sensation that I’ve never felt before. His lips are gentle and warm, like the sun kissing my face on a hot day.
He reaches the corner of my lips and pulls away, just an inch, to look into my eyes as if searching for consent.
I reach my hand to his neck and curl my fingers into the back of his short hair, wordlessly telling him how much I want this. I need this. Need him.
He scans our surroundings and guides me with my elbow. We take the few steps behind a rose bush, under the canopy of a stone pine. Tucked in the shadows, he swoops down and claims my lips, his mouth full of unspoken promises.
I kiss him back like it’s the first time I’ve been allowed to want something just for me.
His hand brushes my jaw, then my neck, then he cups my face like I’m a fragile and rare flower. His thumb catches a tear before it falls.
“I see you,” he whispers against my lips. “All of you. And you’re the most brave and most incredible woman I know.”
I lean in, deepening the kiss. His hand curls into my hair, and I melt into him, the world falling away until there’s only the scent of roses and the feel of him holding me like I’m worth protecting.
He called me his flower.
And for the first time, I believe I can bloom.
For the first time in a long time, I feel safe.
And for the first time ever… I feel wanted.
The bumpy gravel road that leads to the school gates jars me back to the present.
I blink and unfurl my fingers from the seatbelt at my chest. The air feels cooler now, harsher somehow.
That was then. This is now.
I open my eyes fully, letting the memory slip back into the past where it belongs—along with all the bruises, the roses, and the promises that were never kept. I huff. Well, he kept one promise. He killed the man who hurt me, my father, before disappearing into the night.
I let out a heavy sigh and push the button, bringing the window down. My fingers tap the security code into the keypad, waiting as the iron gates groan open.
“Wow, this place really is like Fort Knox.” Dan drives through, keeping to the five-mile-per-hour speed limit as we circle around the main building—a grand, Gothic-style manor with ivy-covered stone walls and arched stained-glass windows that belong in a period drama.
The kind of place built on old money and strict rules.
At the back of the estate, the student accommodation sits in neat rows—newly built red-brick dorms with modern glass-panelled entrances, a sports hall, and a shared games room. It’s like a miniature campus tucked away from the real world.
“This is mine.” Angelos points to his building.
“Want me to come in with you?” I say, unbuckling my belt.
Dan climbs out of the car and opens the boot.
“It’s okay, Mum. I’m just gonna drop my bag in and get to class.”
I wrap my arms around him and kiss the top of his head. “I love you. Have a great week. I’ll see you soon, yeah.”
“Yeah, love you, Mum.”
Dan stands awkwardly, shuffling on his feet. “I’ll see if I can get you a United shirt for your birthday, hey.”
“Bruh, you might find one at a charity shop.”
Dan chuckles and holds out his hand.
Angelos taps it. “Laters.” Then he takes his bag from Dan and runs into his building.
I rub the ache in my chest like I do every time I have to leave him here—always wondering if I’m doing the right thing by him, but he’s getting the best education money can buy, and it’s safer for him here than being at home. I can’t be with him twenty-four seven.
I stare through the window of the boarding house and wait until he’s signed in.
Dan must sense my anxiety as I twist the bangle at my wrist. He places a hand on my back over my flight attendant jacket. “He’s a great kid.”
“He is.” I look down and walk around to the passenger seat of Dan’s car.
He doesn’t speak as he drives back to the city.
“This isn’t the way to the airport.”
His tight lips and firm jaw remind me of the man I knew before. One kiss from me and I could soften all his hard edges.
“I’ve just got to nip to my place and change.”
“Are you really going to come to pick up Angelos with me on his birthday?”
He takes his eyes off the road for a second just to glare at me. “I’ve missed twelve birthdays. I’m not missing another single fucking thing where he’s concerned. Whatever it is. Parents’ meeting, football match. If the kid so much as sneezes, I want to know about it.”