Chapter 9 - The Purge
That night, Matteo Romano unleashed hell on New York City.
Clara stayed in the heavily guarded penthouse, pacing the floor with Luca, listening to the police scanners Dante had set up. For six hours, the city burned.
Matteo systematically dismantled the Falcone family. He didn't just target their soldiers; he took their businesses, their safehouses, and their leadership. By dawn, Carmine Falcone was dead, and the remaining members of his syndicate had surrendered or fled the state.
When Matteo finally returned to the estate the following morning, he was exhausted, stained with the violence of his world. He stopped in the doorway of the nursery, unwilling to step inside and contaminate the purity of the room with the blood on his hands.
Clara was awake. She placed Luca, who was sleeping peacefully, into his crib and walked toward the door.
"Don't," Matteo warned softly, holding a hand up. "I'm not clean, Clara. The things I did tonight... I did them for you and the boy. But I am a monster."
Clara didn't stop. She walked right past his outstretched hand and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face into his chest, entirely ignoring the ash and dirt on his clothes.
"You are a father," Clara said fiercely. "And you are the man I love. I don't care about the rest."
Matteo shuddered, his arms coming up to crush her against him. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling her scent like it was oxygen.
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"I love you," he confessed, the words raw and untested on his tongue. "I have loved you since the moment you walked across that restaurant and told my men to step back. You are my heart, Clara. You and Luca."
He kissed her, a desperate, bruising kiss that tasted of smoke and survival. Clara kissed him back, finally letting go of the ghosts of her past, anchoring herself entirely to the present.
