Chapter 40 DAN
DAN
Ilift Rose’s hand and bring it to my face, my fingers entwining with hers as I press my lips to the back of her hand. “Do you think she can feel me?”
The nurse looks up from her chart. “She’s heavily sedated, but yes, I believe patients can sense when loved ones are close by.
” She pats my shoulder over a t-shirt. “Talk to her.” Her smile is sympathetic before she walks out of the room, leaving us alone with nothing but the drone of machines and the beeping of her heart monitor.
I’m grateful that Elio paid for her to have her own room and be treated privately. His money might be from blood and bricks of cocaine, but right now, I couldn’t care less where it came from. As long as Rose get’s the best care possible.
“Fiore mio.” I kiss her fingers, hoping she can feel me, hear me.
“I have plans for us, Rose. We’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.
If you’ll have me.” I close my eyes, warming her hand against my face.
We have a long road ahead and lots of bridges to build, but I pray she’ll still want me after all this.
“Do you remember when you took me to the Borghese gallery? You showed me around, pointed out all your favourite paintings.” A whimsical smile lifts my cheeks.
“I can’t remember any of them because I was just watching you the whole time.
The way you lit up the room when you talked.
Nothing in that museum was as captivating as you and you had no idea how beautiful you were. ”
I chuckle softly in the sterile quiet. “Stealing my heart wasn’t enough… now you’ve got a piece of me keeping you alive.”
I rest her hand over my bandaged side, where the ache pulses beneath my skin. “It hurts, but it’s nothing compared to the pain I felt when I thought I’d lost you for good. I’d rip out every part of me if it meant keeping you breathing. Our son needs you.”
The monitor hums in a steady rhythm, each beep matching my own fragile heart.
“I know we’ve got things to fix. Words left unsaid. But we’ve got time now. We’ve got a future, Rose. If you still want it. If you still want me.”
I lower my head, my forehead brushing the back of her hand. “Come back to me, fiore mio. I’m not finished loving you yet.”
The door opens. Lucia rides into the room in her new electric wheelchair. “How are you, D’Angelo?”
“I’ve been better.” My lips lift in the corner. “Are you alone?”
“Elio’s just dropped me off. I wanted to sit with her for a while.” She pulls out her rosary and kisses the cross.
“You should get some rest. You look tired.”
She raises an eyebrow. “So do you.”
I huff out a sigh. “I won’t settle until she wakes up and I know she’s all right.”
She hums softly, rolling her chair closer to the bed, her aged fingers smoothing over the rosary beads. "You're a good man, D’Angelo."
I let out a dry chuckle, shaking my head. "Not sure everyone would agree with that."
She tilts her head, watching me carefully. "You saved my daughter’s life. That makes you good in my book."
I glance at Rose, her face tinged with jaundice against the white hospital sheets. I wish I could believe that. But there’s too much blood on my hands, too many things I’ve done.
Her mother exhales softly, her fingers tightening around the rosary. "I owe you an apology, Dan."
I lift my gaze to hers, my eyes widening. "For what?"
She hesitates, as if she’s gathering the strength to say it. “For what my husband did to your mother. For what I caused.”
The words land like a heavy stone in my chest. I swallow, my throat tight. "You didn’t order the hit. He did."
“But it was because of me. He wanted to punish your father in the cruelest way,” she whispers, her eyes glassy.
"I knew what kind of man he was. I knew what he was capable of. And still, I couldn’t stay away from your father when he visited Rome on business.
I loved him. Seeing him was the only joy I had, but our love ruined so many lives—including yours. "
I sit back, rubbing a hand over my jaw, my muscles tense. “Did he love my mother?”
A tear drips onto her hollowed cheek. “Yes, he did. He told me he had met someone, and he was going to marry her. We agreed we wouldn’t see each other again, but then Elio came along. He wanted to see his son when he could.”
“Did Rose’s father know about Elio?”
“No. He never let on if he did. I don’t think he ever realised just how far back our affair went.
But I met your father before my marriage.
Then several months later, he noticed the change in me.
The brokenness that even my own family failed to acknowledge, or maybe they just turned a blind eye to it. ”
I wrap both my hands around Rose’s fingers.
Her mother’s story is very similar to hers, as if it’s a generational curse.
But that curse ends with us. Lucia may never have got her happy ever after, but I’ll make it my mission that Rose lives the rest of her days like a princess in a fairy tale.
I gaze down at my sleeping beauty, wishing one kiss would make her wake.
Only I’m no Prince Charming. I’m not even a white knight.
A small laugh shakes my shoulders, causing a sharp pain behind my ribs as I remember what Dom called me. I’m just a guy in a hospital gown donating an organ. But I’d give up my life for hers if it came to that. Dom’s right. She’s always been the one.
“You’re probably right. He would have most likely killed you and Elio if he knew the truth.”
Lucia lets out a bitter laugh. "I think he planned to kill me, anyway." Slowly, she reaches for the collar of her blouse and tugs it down slightly, just enough to reveal a long, jagged scar along her collarbone, the skin puckered and stretched with time.
My jaw tightens. "He did that?" My stomach knots.
She nods, swallowing hard. "One of many. Your father may have been the man I truly loved, but I paid for that love every single day. My husband… he wasn’t just cruel in the way he ordered men to kill. He enjoyed breaking people. And I was his favourite thing to break."
Rage flares hot in my chest, but beneath it there’s something cold that's glad I put a bullet in him, and I can't wait to do the same with Rose’s abuser.
I never doubted it was the right thing. Not for a second. But now, knowing what he did to Lucia, knowing what he put Rose through, what he put all of us through, a part of me wonders if I should have made him suffer more. I shake my head, exhaling sharply. “If I had known—”
She stops me with a look. “No. What you did, you did for your mother. For yourself. But you also saved me, Dan. I won’t pretend I wasn’t relieved when I found him dead. For the first time in my life, I could breathe.”
I let that sink in. Her husband’s death wasn’t just justice. It was freedom.
She shifts her gaze to Rose, her expression softening. “But the scars he left didn’t die with him. They live on in the people he hurt. You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”
I look at Rose, my throat tightening. “She has scars too.”
Her mother nods. “From her husband.”
I close my eyes briefly, remembering the first time I saw them. The thin, raised marks trailing over her back. The way she flinched when I first traced them with my fingers. The way her breath caught, like she was waiting for something bad to happen.
I’d never hated anyone more in my life than I did at that moment. I force out a breath. “No one ever hurts her again. I’ll make sure of it.”
Her mother reaches for my hand, her grip surprisingly strong. “You’re the only one I trust to do that, Dan.”
Silence settles between us, heavy but not suffocating. Understanding.
“Do you know why she married him?”
I swallow the bile in my throat, not sure I want to know the reason she married a monster while I was lying broken in a field hospital after the helicopter accident. “It’s all in the past now. It doesn’t matter.”
“She made a deal with her uncle and Elio. He put a target on your back and your brother’s. Nothing I said would appease him. He wanted revenge. I should have told Elio the truth back then, but I feared if my husband’s relatives got word, they’d cast Elio out of the family, and me.”
Through gritted teeth, I say, “What was the deal?”
“She begged him not to kill you or your brother. Said she’d do anything.
” Lucia strokes Rose’s forehead. “Elio needed to solidify ties overseas. With my husband gone, the family was vulnerable. Her uncle said if she married Elio’s contact in the UK who owned the casino, the head of the Italian crime family in London, he’d call off the hit for you and your brother. ”
I close my eyes, holding back the flood of emotion threatening to drown me.
“I thought she did it out of spite. I couldn’t stand the thought of her with another man, so I spent every waking hour gathering as much dirt on him as I could to make a case to put him behind bars.
” My palms warm Rose’s hand between them, hoping if she can hear me, that she’ll forgive me.
“I wanted her to hurt like I was. I wanted her to be as miserable as me.” I silently curse myself for being such a fucking selfish bastard.
“The whole time she was in an abusive relationship.” I fight back the emotion clogged in my throat.
Lucia nods. “She hid it well for Angelos’ sake.
But putting Magnus behind bars probably saved her life.
” She gives me a warm smile. “You’ve both had this connection since you were young, and you’ve unintentionally saved each other on numerous occasions.
” Her gaze drops to the cross in her hands.
“You’re not just two people who found each other—you’re two souls that have been reaching for each other across time, through every scar, every loss.
She saved you when you didn’t even know you needed saving, and I know you’ll spend the rest of your life doing the same for her. ”
Rose’s mother squeezes my hand one last time before releasing it, and leaning back in her chair. "You should get some rest. She’s going to need you when she wakes up."
I nod, but I don’t move.
Because until Rose opens her eyes, I won’t rest.
We’re broken in different ways, but somehow, the pieces fit. She’s been saving me for as long as I’ve been saving her. Maybe that’s what love really is—two souls pulling each other out of the darkness, over and over again.