na

nightstand, casting a h

associates.

I didn't even un

was already asleep. Or

like a gaping wound, a physical ache in my chest. To

up at

house. I made coff

t. Just the way he nev

door ope

e city's golden boy stripped away by the night. Hi

tale smoke and ye

o. Just a

bin when he stopped in the hallway,

one broken?

avelly growl, roug

" I

t the wall as if the world were tilting. "I di

s sle

me anxious. He liked me pacing the floor, worrying

bedroom, then paused at the

quare of lighter paint on the gray w

the photo?

ve years ago. Before the

e," I said. My

t," he

how it broke.

ed down, and the hard line of his jaw s

ght the phone to his mouth,

le one. I'll see

bedroom, closing

y hands started to shake. Not from emo

My blood suga

a slice of bread in the toaster. My vision was sw

later, Dante

looked impeccable again. The Capo a

ng the dry toa

"I come home starving, and you're stuffing your f

rom my hand and dropped

y we eat," he sai

trash bin. My br

be late for

e leaving no room for argument. "You

back to fill a

t make

purse and walke

nging in my ears, I opened soci

skyline of the city he ruled. Now, it was a phot

lips

Morning e

I didn't feel

screen. I lik

contacts. I foun

it to Dant

d him fro

the list, buried under the d

ng. But it felt li