Chapter 10 - The Absolute Surrender
Dante reached into his jacket pocket. He didn't pull out a weapon. He pulled out a thick, notarized legal document and gently slid it across the bakery floor toward her feet.
"I came to set you free," Dante whispered.
Isabella looked down at the paperwork. It was a fully executed, irrevocable legal transfer. Dante had placed his entire legitimate, clean fortune—over fifty million dollars—into a blind trust exclusively for her and their baby. Attached to it was proof that the Chicago syndicate was completely dissolved. The monster was dead.
"I broke my vow to you," Dante said, looking up at her with profound, crushing remorse. "I let power blind me, and I let another woman disrespect the only queen I ever loved. I spent the last six months burning the empire to the ground because it made me hurt you."
Isabella stared at the broken man on his knees. The cinematic realism of his absolute surrender was breathtaking.
"You are safe, Isabella," Dante promised, slowly standing back up, proving he respected her boundaries by not stepping any closer. "I will walk out that door, and you will never see me again. I won't cast a shadow on my child's life. I just needed to look at you one last time and know you were okay."
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Dante turned his back, placing his hand on the door handle, ready to walk away into the cold, lonely abyss of his own consequences forever.
If you were Isabella, would you let the reformed, broken man walk out that door forever, or would you give him one final chance to be a father?
