Splinters of Us
Diamond stood in the doorway, her hand still on the knob, her body trembling. Adriano’s words still echoed in her mind.
“I was jealous. And stupid. And insecure. And I let all that mess get into my head instead of listening to the woman I love.”
Adriano stood there, frozen. Just realizing what he said. But there was also an ache in his chest.
Guilt.
He felt guilty as he stood there, staring at Diamond who looked like a ghost of herself. Her eyes red-rimmed and glassy, her cheeks stained with tears, her lips trembling.
“Can I come in?” he asked gently.
A beat passed. Then she stepped aside without a word.
He walked in slowly, like every creak in the floor might set off a landmine. She closed the door behind him, the lock clicking back into place with finality. But neither of them moved for a moment.
Just… silence.
Adriano turned to face her. His lips parted slightly. “Diamond—”
“Did you just say you love me?” she asked again, cutting him off.
Adriano swallowed hard. His heart thudded in his chest. “I do,” he said quietly. “I love you, Diamond.”
She stared at him, her eyes red and full of disbelief. “You pick now? After choking me out in a hallway?”
His shoulders sagged. “I know. And I'm fucking stupid for that. You should hate me.”
“I do,” she said. Her voice cracked. “I hate that you made me fall for you. I hate that I cared enough to let this hurt.”
He stepped closer. “I know what you’re probably thinking. That I only said I love you because I hurt you. Because I wanted to fix things. That maybe I don’t even know what love is—”
“Stop.” Her voice cracked.
Adriano froze.
“Don’t say that word again,” she whispered.
He swallowed hard. “Why not?”
“Because it doesn’t fix anything!”
Her voice was hoarse and strained. She still wasn’t looking at him. She walked past him and sat on the edge of the bed like her body had suddenly gone heavy again.
“I’ve been lied to my whole life,” she said. “Everyone I trusted… Everyone who ever said they’d protect me… They either died, betrayed me, or used me.”
Adriano stood still, watching her carefully. “I’m not them.”
“No,” she said. “You’re not. But you still hurt me.”
He flinched. And for a second, she felt bad. Until she remembered the feeling of his hand around her throat.
“Dee—”
“You promised me you would protect me too,” she said, eyes flicking up to meet his. “And for a while, I actually started to believe it. I trusted you. I started to believe in something again. I let you see pieces of me I’ve never shown anyone else, and in return… you looked me in the face and called me a liar. You didn’t even ask me what happened. You just…” Her throat tightened. “You just grabbed me and assumed the worst.”
Adriano’s jaw clenched. The pain in her voice hit like a punch to the gut. “I know. I was wrong. I was jealous. And reckless. And I’m sorry.”
“Jealousy doesn’t justify hurting people, Adriano.”
Adriano stepped forward slowly. “Then hit me. Yell at me. Throw shit at my head. Do whatever you want but please—don’t shut me out.”
Diamond stood up suddenly. The motion made him take a step back. Not in fear—just in shame.
She was pacing now, running a hand through her hair. “You say you love me, but I don’t know if I can trust that. Love doesn’t look like that. It doesn’t feel like this.”
Adriano stepped forward. “I don’t want to make excuses. I just want to make it right.”
She stopped and turned toward him. “Then start by listening. Actually listening.”
“I’m listening,” he said quietly.
“I’m not okay,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’m falling apart, Adriano. Do you understand that? I feel like my head is splitting open and my heart is beating so hard it hurts! I—I can’t breathe! And I can't—”
Her voice broke off, choked and strangled, like the weight of her words had crushed her lungs. She staggered a step back, her hand pressed to her chest like she was trying to hold her heart in place. Her knees buckled slightly.
Adriano moved without thinking.
He was in front of her in an instant, reaching for her just as her legs gave out. She didn’t fight him. Didn’t resist. She collapsed into his arms like a wave breaking against the shore.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered, arms wrapping around her tightly.
She clung to him like she was drowning.
And then she cried.
The kind of crying that didn’t come in neat sobs, but in gasping, shuddering breaths that rocked her whole frame. Her fists curled into his shirt as she buried her face into his chest, muffling the sound. But it didn’t hide the brokenness. The grief. The sheer devastation in every tremble of her body.
Adriano sank to the floor with her still in his arms, settling with his back against the wall, letting her curl into him. He held her like she was made of glass, terrified of hurting her again, but desperate to keep her from falling apart.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, his voice barely more than a breath. “I’m so fucking sorry, Diamond.”
Her fingers gripped the front of his shirt tighter.
He didn’t speak again. Didn’t try to explain. Didn’t ask her to stop crying. He just let her break.
And still, he held her.
Held her as her sobs slowly turned to hiccuped breaths. As her strength drained from her limbs. As the storm quieted but never truly ended.
Diamond didn’t know how long they sat there, tangled in silence and pain.
Eventually, her voice came, small and exhausted. “I hate feeling like this.”
Adriano pressed a soft kiss into her hair. “I know.”
His arms tightened around her.
She didn’t say anything. But her fingers didn’t let go of him either.
They sat there like that for a while longer like two broken people trying to hold each other together in the wreckage. Her breathing eventually slowed. Her body grew heavier against his.
Adriano rested his chin on the top of her head, his own eyes burning now.
“I love you, Dee,” he whispered, more to himself than to her this time. “I’m not gonna lose you. Not like this. Not ever.”
She didn’t answer.
But for the first time in hours, she didn’t cry.
And that was enough.
For now.
—
The room was shrouded in darkness.
The only source of light came from above, a single beam spilling onto a small platform in the center of the room—a pedestal of black marble. Sitting on top of it, sealed behind glass like a sacred relic, was a ruby necklace that shimmered with a slow, almost pulsing glow. Blood-red. Regal. And dangerous.
Don Valentino Moretti stood in silence, his tall frame casting a shadow that stretched along the floor like a viper in waiting. His face was blank, unreadable. But his eyes…
His eyes burned.
They were fixed on the necklace—Rosalia Greco’s necklace—with a look that teetered between obsession and mourning. Like it was the only piece of his past he hadn’t been able to bury.
Footsteps echoed faintly behind him.
Matteo Moretti entered the room, his movements slow and careful, like stepping into the presence of a sleeping lion. He came to stand beside his father, his hands tucked behind his back, eyes also lifting to the necklace in the glass case.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Matteo broke the silence.
“Papà… they know,” he said simply. “About the Veil. The auctions. Everything.”
Valentino didn’t react.
Matteo continued. “They know about all of our private operations. Why are we sitting around on our asses when we should be sending men to kill the Grecos? Isn't this the right time to strike?”
Valentino said nothing. He remained silent for a while until he finally said,
“No.”
His tone was flat. Cold. Final.
He didn’t even turn his head. His gaze remained locked on the necklace, as if the answer was embedded in the ruby all along.
Matteo’s jaw tightened. “Papà—”
“I said no.”
There was a quiet fury beneath his tone now. One that was old. Wounded. Lethal.
“All these years,” Valentino said slowly, “I have held onto this necklace. I’ve kept it—not as a trophy, but as a reminder.”
Matteo said nothing.
Valentino’s voice darkened. “A reminder of what he took from me. Of what Rosalia meant to him.”
His eyes glinted with something dangerous.
“And now… now that I’ve finally summoned the strength to let it go… to let it be auctioned to the highest bidder as the last chapter of a story I buried years ago…” His lips curled. “Raffaele sends his little bastards to come and steal it from me? From under my nose?”
Valentino chuckled.
It wasn’t warm. It wasn’t amused.
It was cold.
Lethal.
Broken.
“I would rather burn this entire empire to the ground than let a Greco lay a single hand on that necklace.”
Matteo’s eyes flickered. “So what do we do?”
Valentino’s gaze sharpened. He tilted his head slightly, just enough for the light to cast a sliver of shadow across his jaw.
“Let them come.”
A wicked smile slowly spread across his face.
“I’ll be waiting.”