"On Christmas Eve, Mafia boss Dominic Moretti found his maid’s three-year-old daughter sitting alone beneath the grand staircase, clutching a photograph and whispering, “I’m waiting for my mom.”

That night, after Lily was put to bed, I found Sophia in the library. She was staring at a bookshelf, but I could tell her mind was a million miles away.

“I’m leaving for New York in the morning,” I said, standing in the doorway.

She turned around sharply, panic flashing in her eyes. “Why? You said it was safe here.”

“It is. But I have to stop them from coming looking for us,” I explained, walking toward her. “I have to deal with the Vitale family. And my mother.”

Sophia closed the distance between us, grabbing the lapels of my shirt. It was the first time she had willingly initiated contact since Albany.

“Don't go,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Dominic, they will kill you. I know how they work.”

I looked down at her hands on my chest, my heart hammering violently. “I have to, Sophia. I can't build a future for us on a foundation of threats.”

She looked up, tears brimming in her eyes. “I spent four years hating you because I thought you let her chase me away. But every night... I looked at Lily, and all I saw was you. I never stopped loving you.”

The confession broke whatever restraint I had left. I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her flush against my body, and crashed my lips onto hers.

It was a desperate, hungry kiss. Four years of pain, longing, and grief poured into the space between us. Sophia kissed me back with equal ferocity, her hands tangling in my hair.