Chapter 10 - The Horizon
Five years later.
The Romano estate was no longer a mausoleum. It was a chaotic, beautiful mess of finger paintings, half-finished projects, and the sound of children laughing.
Leo was ten now, a confident, curious boy who loved the sun and didn't fear the quiet.
And there was another one—a little girl named Elena, with Dominic’s dark eyes and Beatrice’s soft, round, warm face.
Beatrice was in the kitchen, making a giant batch of cookies for Elena’s birthday. The kitchen was a disaster, flour dusted over everything, but she was smiling.
Dominic walked in, his sleeves rolled up, and wrapped his arms around her waist. He didn't look like a mob boss. He looked like a man who had finally, truly, found his way home.
“You’re covered in flour,” he whispered against her neck.
“It’s the best way to be,” she replied.
They stood there for a moment, the three of them—Dominic, Beatrice, and the children—surrounded by the warmth of a life they had built together.
The city still whispered about Dominic Romano, the man who had walked away from an empire to raise a family in the suburbs. Some said he had lost his mind. Some said he was hiding.
But Dominic didn't care.
He looked at Beatrice, her soft face, her warm eyes, the way she took up space in the world without ever needing permission. He realized that the greatest power he had ever possessed wasn't the ability to destroy—it was the ability to build.
And as the sun began to set, casting a golden light over their small, imperfect, beautiful world, he knew.
He hadn't lost his mind.
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He had finally seen something real.
And it was the best thing he had ever done.
