Part 2The Don’s Runaway Substitute

“What are you doing?”

Dante’s voice dropped. He stepped into the living room, his gaze settling on the cardboard box at my feet. I stopped what I was doing and tried to keep my tone casual.

“Just clearing a few things out. The room was starting to feel cluttered.”

I reached to close the box, but Dante was already in front of me. He picked up the Coney Island photo.

In it, he wore the ridiculous paper crown I had forced onto his head while I leaned against his shoulder, laughing so hard I could barely keep my eyes open. Dante looked at the picture.

“You’re putting this away too?”

“It’s been there for two years.” I reached for it. “And it’s not even a good photo.”

He didn’t hand it back. The floating comments drifted across my vision.

【At least she finally has some self-awareness. Bianca is coming back. Of course she needs to clear out all this evidence first.】

【Imagine Bianca seeing how comfortable this substitute got playing future Mrs. Romano. Dante would only be more disgusted.】

I lowered my hand. Once Bianca came back, maybe this house really shouldn’t be filled with so many pieces of me. Dante lifted his eyes.

“Ivy.” He rarely said my name in that tone.

“What are you actually doing?”

“I told you. I’m cleaning.”

“Yesterday, you suddenly decided you don’t care about my phone or my schedule. This morning, you’re packing away our pictures.” His gaze dropped to the box.

“You expect me to believe this is cleaning?” I hesitated.

“I just think we both need more privacy.”

Dante stared at me as if I had said something absurd.

“Privacy?”

I knew exactly why he reacted that way. If he came home later than expected, I checked his location. If he didn’t answer his phone, I got anxious fast. Once, his battery died during a meeting and I couldn’t reach him for nearly two hours. I had a driver take me straight to Romano Holdings. The meeting was still going on.

I waited outside the executive floor and refused to leave no matter who tried to talk me down.

When Dante finally came out, I demanded to know why he hadn’t answered me in front of his second-in-command and several senior executives. I even told him that from then on, if his battery dropped below twenty percent, I expected a warning.

Anyone else probably would have been removed by Romano security. Dante only looked at me for a few seconds before placing the dead phone in my hand.

“Battery died.”

I was still angry. He bent down and kissed my forehead.

“Next time, I won’t let you lose track of me.”

On the drive home, he even had Marco add an emergency location-sharing option to his phone.

Back then, I thought no one in the world could tolerate me the way Dante did. Now the memory only made me uneasy.

How much patience did a man need to hide resentment for three years? Dante placed the frame back in the box.

“Fine.” His voice was unnervingly calm.

“If you suddenly want space, I’ll give you space.”

Then he turned and went upstairs. About fifteen minutes later, he came back down wearing a perfectly tailored black suit. I glanced at him.

That level of formality meant this wasn’t an ordinary family meeting. Normally, I would already be asking questions. Where are you going? Who are you meeting?

Why are you dressed like that? Today, I said nothing. Dante reached the entryway, picked up his car keys, and stopped. For some reason, he seemed to be waiting.

That was when I noticed the watch he usually wore sitting on the console. I picked it up and held it toward him.

“Your watch.”

Dante didn’t take it. His eyes dropped to my hand before returning to my face.

“You don’t have anything you want to ask?” My chest tightened.

“Like what?” His expression darkened. Finally, he answered his own question.

“Someone is coming back from Europe today.” My fingers stilled.

“An old friend.”

He didn’t need to say her name. Bianca DeLuca. The comments had been repeating it since yesterday. So today was the day.

“I’m picking her up from the airport,” Dante continued. “There’s a welcome dinner tonight.” The comments immediately appeared.

【Here we go. Dante is personally picking Bianca up.】

【Now that is special treatment. The substitute should pay attention.】

【She used to lose it if Dante even had dinner with another woman. Let’s see how long she can keep pretending she doesn’t care.】

The familiar ache spread through my chest. Before yesterday, I would have asked who was attending the dinner, what time it ended, and why Dante needed to pick Bianca up himself. I probably would have insisted on going with him. Instead, I set the watch back on the console.

“Okay.” Dante didn’t move. I forced a small smile.

“Have fun.”

He kept staring at me as if he were waiting for the questions that normally came next. I didn’t ask any. The silence between us grew heavy. After a few seconds, Dante stepped closer.

“You really don’t care?”

I instinctively moved back half a step. Something in his eyes reminded me of the comments.

It also reminded me that the man standing in front of me wasn’t only the Dante who came home in the middle of the night because I couldn’t sleep.

He was the Don of the Romano family. And if I wanted to leave safely, I couldn’t keep testing how much patience he had left.

“Why should I care?” I looked up at him and tried to sound relaxed.

“She’s your friend. Of course you can go pick her up.” Dante’s expression turned completely cold.

“Ivy.”

“I told you. I’ve thought about it.” I held his gaze.

“I used to interfere too much.”

“From now on, you don’t need my permission to go anywhere or see anyone.” I paused. Then I said softly,

“You’re free, Dante.”