Chapter 18 - A NEW DAWN|
That evening, after the shop was locked up, Vincent took Elena and Sophie to a quiet restaurant on the riverfront—not a mob hangout like the Golden Palm, but a bright, open place filled with families and soft music.
Sophie was happily eating chocolate ice cream, her nose covered in syrup.
"She’s getting so big," Vincent remarked softly, watching her.
"She’s seven going on thirty," Elena chuckled, sipping her wine. She looked at Vincent across the table. "What happens now, Vincent?"
"What do you mean?"
"The war is over. Razer is gone. Moretti is gone. Your territory is safe," Elena said quietly, her eyes searching his. "Are you going back to your old life? The shadows?"
Vincent looked down at his hands—hands that had ordered deaths, built a empire, and carried violence for decades.
"I spent thirty years building a cage of power, Elena," Vincent confessed, his voice low and vulnerable. "I thought it was protecting me. But the night Sophie ran into that restaurant, she unlocked the door. I don't think I can go back into that cage again."
Elena reached across the small table, her soft fingers wrapping around his large, calloused hand.
May you like
"Then don't," she whispered. "Stay out here in the light with us."
Vincent looked up, his dark eyes softening, and for the first time in his long, brutal life, he saw a future that wasn't written in blood.
