Chapter 7 - THE ORDER THAT COST HIM HIS WIFE
“You sent her out there alone?”
Sarah repeated the words slowly.
Dante sat opposite her in the mansion's small breakfast room.
Outside, sunlight touched the lake.
Inside, neither of them could look away from the security log.
“I believed she was meeting someone who might hurt her,” Dante said.
Sarah stared at him.
“Then why would you remove her protection?”
He closed his eyes.
“Because I was angry.”
The admission seemed to empty the room.
Dante had spent three years telling himself Isabella's death was an accident he couldn't prevent.
Now he remembered exactly what had happened before she left.
She had asked him to trust her.
He had demanded to know whom she was meeting.
She had refused to reveal Rose's name because she feared her source would be threatened.
Dante had mistaken that secrecy for betrayal.
“I told her that if she insisted on going, she would go without my men.”
Sarah's expression tightened.
“And then?”
“She said, 'I never thought I'd have to choose between telling you the truth and keeping someone else safe.'”
His voice broke.
“She walked out. I never apologized.”
Sarah looked down at her hands.
She wanted to comfort him.
But there was something he needed more than comfort.
“You made a terrible decision,” she said.
Dante nodded.
“I know.”
“But you didn't put that barrier across the road.”
“No.”
“And you didn't make the settlement money disappear.”
He looked at her.
“Then why does it feel like I killed her?”
Sarah's eyes filled.
“Because you loved her. And you failed her at the worst possible moment.”
He didn't defend himself.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Dante Moretti allowed someone to tell him a painful truth without trying to control the conversation.
That afternoon, the consequences reached Sarah.
The employment agency informed her that her contract was being reviewed.
Someone had complained that she had entered private areas of the estate and interfered with medical instructions.
The agency suggested she return to Chicago until the review was complete.
Sarah knew who had made the complaint.
Carlo.
She packed her bag.
When Dante found her near the servants' staircase, he stopped.
“Where are you going?”
“My job is being questioned. I won't stay somewhere I'm being treated like a criminal.”
“I'll call the agency.”
“That isn't enough.”
He frowned.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Believe me before somebody has to prove I'm innocent.”
Dante looked at the small suitcase beside her.
“My daughters need you.”
Sarah's voice softened.
“I care about them. But they can't be the reason I accept being humiliated.”
He had no answer.
Upstairs, Bella noticed the suitcase first.
“Sarah going?”
Sarah knelt.
“I'm going home for tonight.”
Bella's lower lip trembled.
“Because we cried?”
“No, sweetheart.”
Sarah held both girls' hands.
“You haven't done anything wrong.”
Mia pressed her favorite blanket against Sarah's arm.
“Take this.”
Sarah shook her head gently.
“You keep it. I'll come back to visit if your daddy says it's okay.”
Bella looked at Dante.
“Daddy, fix it.”
Three small words.
More powerful than any order he had received.
Dante swallowed.
“I'm trying, sweetheart.”
Sarah left before sunset.
That night, the twins struggled to fall asleep.
But Dante did something different.
He turned off the overhead lights.
He sat on the rug.
And he hummed the melody he remembered Isabella singing.
His voice was rough.
He forgot parts.
Mia corrected him once.
“Not that bit, Daddy.”
Despite everything, he smiled.
“Then help me.”
She hummed the next notes.
Bella leaned against his knee.
For the first time, Dante understood that comforting his children wasn't something he could delegate forever.
Later, he went downstairs and found Enzo waiting.
“I need to know everything about that night,” Dante said.
“Everything.”
Enzo looked exhausted.
“Boss, there's something I never told you.”
Dante felt his chest tighten.
“Say it.”
“After you withdrew Isabella's detail, I went after her anyway.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought I could bring her home before you discovered I'd disobeyed.”
Dante stepped closer.
“Did you find her?”
Enzo's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At the North access bridge.”
Dante's voice dropped.
“Before the accident?”
Enzo shook his head.
May you like
And after three years of silence, the loyal bodyguard finally said the words he had been too ashamed to speak.
“I was standing on that bridge when Isabella's car went over the railing.”
