Chapter 164

Chapter 164
Elena’s POV

Two months had passed, yet every morning still began the same way.

I woke before the alarm, my hand instinctively reaching toward the empty side of the bed before my eyes had even opened.

It was a habit I had never managed to break.

For a brief moment, I always forgot. Then reality settled quietly over me, and the emptiness beside me became familiar all over again.

I pushed myself upright and drew the curtains apart.

Morning sunlight spilled into the room, bathing everything in a warm golden glow that should have felt comforting.

Instead, it only reminded me how much life insisted on moving forward, whether my heart was ready or not.

Downstairs, I could already hear Bella talking and narrating every thought that crossed her mind.

A small smile found my lips. Some things never changed.

By the time I reached the dining room, Mrs. Peters had breakfast on the table while Adam stood beside the kitchen island discussing the day’s appointments with Grace.

“Your ten o’clock fitting was moved to eleven,” Adam said, handing me my tablet. “The bride’s mother is stuck in traffic.”

I nodded absently. “That’s fine.”

Bella looked up from her cereal and grinned. “Mama, I finished all my fruit today.”

Mrs. Peters smiled proudly. “Without any negotiations.”

I kissed the top of Bella’s head. “I’m impressed.”

She beamed as though she had just won an award.

The conversation continued around me, warm and familiar, but every now and then my eyes drifted toward the front door.

I wasn’t expecting anyone. I hadn’t been expecting anyone for weeks. But despite that, some foolish part of me still looked.

A sudden knock echoed through the house.

One of the security guards stepped inside a moment later, looking slightly uncertain.

“Madam?”

I turned toward him. “Yes?”

“There’s someone at the gate asking to see you.”

I frowned. “I wasn’t expecting a client.”

“So I thought.”

I rose from my chair, smoothing my blouse as I walked toward the entrance.

Behind me, Bella called, “Mama, don’t take too long.”

I smiled without turning around. “I won’t.”

I had no idea that with every step toward that front door, I was walking toward the moment that would change everything.

The walk to the front door felt strangely longer than it usually did. 

I wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was the way the guard had spoken, or the hesitation on his face that suggested whoever had arrived wasn’t a client after all.

When I reached the foyer, he stepped aside and pulled the door open.

For a moment, my mind went completely blank.

Dante stood on the other side. A small duffel bag rested beside his feet. His clothes were simple, his hair slightly longer than before, and there was a quietness about him that hadn’t existed two months ago.

He looked tired and lighter as though he had finally put down a weight he had been carrying for years.

Neither of us spoke. I simply stared at him, afraid that if I blinked, he would disappear like a dream I’d imagined out of desperation.

His eyes searched my face with the same uncertainty. Then, after what felt like forever, he smiled.

A small, nervous smile.

“Hi.”

That single word shattered whatever fragile composure I had been clinging to.

My feet moved before my mind could catch up. I crossed the distance between us almost blindly and threw my arms around him.

The force of it made him stumble back a step, but his arms came around me immediately, holding me as though he had been longing to do exactly this.

I buried my face against his chest.

He was real. He was here.  The tears came without warning.

For weeks, I had told myself I wouldn’t cry if he ever came back. I would be angry. I would demand answers. I would make him explain why he had left us. Instead, all I could do was hold on.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice breaking against my hair.

His embrace tightened. “I’m so sorry, Elena.”

He said it again. And again. Each apology quieter than the last.

I closed my eyes and let myself breathe him in, realizing that for the first time in two months, the emptiness inside me had begun to give way to something else.

Hope. 

I don’t know how long we stood there. Neither of us seemed willing to be the first to let go, as though doing so might somehow make this moment disappear.

Then a small voice drifted down the hallway. “Mama?”

I slowly pulled back, my eyes still fixed on Dante’s face.

I turned instinctively. Bella stood at the entrance to the hallway with her school bag hanging from one shoulder, her little sweater half buttoned and Teddy tucked beneath her arm.

She wasn’t looking at me. She was looking past me…..straight at Dante.

For a heartbeat, she didn’t move. Her wide brown eyes blinked once, then twice.

“Daddy?” The word came out so softly it was almost a whisper.

Dante’s entire face crumpled. “Hi, Princess.”

Bella searched his face as though she needed to make absolutely certain he was real.

“You are back?”

His throat bobbed. “I am.”

“You really are back?”

“I really am.”

She let out a tiny sob before racing toward him. “Daddy!”

He barely had time to kneel before she threw herself into his arms. The impact nearly knocked him backward, but he laughed through the tears already gathering in his eyes and wrapped both arms tightly around her.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured, pressing a kiss into her hair. “I’ve got you.”

Bella clung to him with all the strength her little body possessed.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

“So much.”

“I know.”

“You not leaving again?” The question hung in the air, innocent and heartbreaking all at once.

Dante closed his eyes for a brief moment before looking at her again. “I came home, Bella.”

She studied him with the solemn seriousness only children could manage.

“Home means you stay.” His voice was barely audible.

Bella seemed satisfied with that answer. She cupped his face with both tiny hands, exactly as she had seen me do countless times before.

“You look happy.”

A watery laugh escaped him. “I feel happier.”

She smiled then, the kind of smile that reached every corner of her face before she hugged him all over again.

Behind me, I heard a quiet sniffle. Mrs. Peters stood just outside the kitchen, discreetly dabbing at her eyes with the edge of her apron.

Adam had stopped in the hallway too, his expression soft, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Neither of them spoke, some moments deserved silence. This was one of them.

Bella insisted on walking Dante through every room in the house before Mrs. Peters finally convinced her that she would be late for school if she didn’t leave that very minute.

“I’ll be back soon,” she promised, pointing a tiny finger at Dante as though she were the parent. “Don’t disappear.”

A shadow passed through his eyes. “I won’t.”

She looked at him for another second before nodding, apparently satisfied, then skipped out of the house with Mrs. Peters.

The front door clicked shut behind them causing silence to settle over the living room.

Adam glanced between the two of us, reading the room better than anyone.

“I’ll be in the office if either of you needs me.”

He gave Dante a small nod before quietly walking away.

Dante and I were finally alone for the first time since he arrived. I sat on the sofa, suddenly unsure what to do with my hands.

A few moments ago, all I had wanted was to hold him. Now that he was here, the questions I had buried for two months began rising to the surface.

Dante remained standing for a moment before slowly sitting opposite me.

“I know I owe you an explanation.”

I looked at him. “You do.”

He lowered his gaze to his hands.

“I read your letter so many times that I lost count.”

A flicker of pain crossed his face. “I figured you would.”

“I hated you for leaving.” The words came out quietly. “And then I hated myself for hating you because all I could think about was whether you were safe.”

He swallowed hard but didn’t interrupt.

“I kept wondering if I’d said something wrong. If I’d missed some sign. If there was something I could have done to make you stay.”

“There wasn’t.” His answer came so quickly that it caught me off guard.

“There wasn’t anything you could have done, Elena.” He drew a slow breath. “When I came home, I thought prison had ended.”

His eyes finally met mine. “It hadn’t.”

I frowned slightly.

“I left the prison, but I brought it back with me. Every room I walked into, every conversation I listened to, I kept waiting for someone to realize I didn’t fit anymore.”

I remembered the quietness that had followed him through those weeks, the distant look in his eyes and the sleepless nights.

“I thought you were angry with us,” I admitted.

“I was angry with myself.” His voice was steady, but there was no hiding the regret behind it.

“I looked at Bella laughing, at you running your business, at Adam helping where I should have been helping, and I convinced myself you’d all built a life that worked better without me.”

I shook my head slowly. “Dante…”

“I know.” A faint, almost embarrassed smile touched his lips. “I know now that none of that was true.”

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “I spent two months learning something I should have understood long ago.”

I waited.

“I thought healing meant staying away until I became the man you deserved.” He exhaled softly. “It doesn’t.”

His eyes held mine, open and unguarded.

“It means coming home willing to keep healing… with the people I love instead of away from them.”

For a long moment, neither of us spoke.

Then I reached across the space between us and covered his hand with mine.

“I won’t pretend you didn’t hurt me.”

His fingers tightened gently around mine. “I know.”

“But I’m glad you came home.”

The corners of his mouth lifted into the smallest smile.

“So am I.”