Chapter 15 - THE WOMAN HE FINALLY STOPPED SEARCHING FOR
Eight months later, Belluno’s was packed.
Not because of a shooting.
Not because of a secret meeting.
Not because someone was trying to kill Talia Mercer.
People simply wanted dinner.
Talia stood near table seventeen wearing a dark blue dress instead of a waitress uniform.
Noah walked toward her without a brace.
His physical therapy had worked.
He still carried a cane on difficult days, but tonight he had left it at home.
“You’re staring,” Noah said.
“At what?”
“Him.”
Across the restaurant, Dante was arguing with Anthony over the wine list.
Talia smiled.
“No, I’m not.”
“You absolutely are.”
Vincent approached from the private dining room.
He looked older now that he was finally allowed to live under his own name.
His testimony had dismantled what remained of Cross Meridian.
His relationship with Talia was slower to repair.
But it was repairing.
That mattered.
Dante crossed the room.
“Walk with me.”
“That sounds suspicious.”
“It’s New York. Everything sounds suspicious.”
He led her through the kitchen and out beneath the same awning where he had first handed her his black business card.
Rain was falling again.
Talia laughed.
“You planned the weather?”
“My influence has limits.”
“Good to know.”
Dante took something from his pocket.
Talia raised an eyebrow.
“If that’s another mysterious photograph, I’m leaving.”
“It’s worse.”
He opened a small box.
Inside was a ring.
For once, Talia Mercer had no tactical response.
Dante looked almost nervous.
That might have been the most shocking thing she had ever seen.
“I spent years looking for the woman in that photograph,” he said. “Then I found someone stronger, more stubborn, more dangerous, and considerably more difficult.”
“Strong proposal so far.”
He smiled.
“I don’t want someone behind me, Talia.”
His voice softened.
“I want you beside me.”
She looked at the ring.
Then at him.
“Yes.”
Dante blinked.
“I had more speech.”
“You were taking too long.”
She kissed him before he could answer.
Inside the restaurant, Noah cheered through the window.
Anthony started applauding.
Vincent quietly looked away, pretending he had something in his eye.
Talia laughed against Dante’s mouth.
For the first time in fifteen years, nobody was chasing her.
Nobody was hunting Dante.
Nobody was hiding behind a false name.
Later that night, Dante gave her one final envelope from his father’s safe.
Talia opened it.
Inside was the original photograph of her family.
On the back, beneath the words FIND THE MERCER GIRL, another sentence had been hidden under a strip of old tape.
Talia read it twice.
Then she looked at Dante.
His father’s final secret had never been about a ledger.
It said:
SHE IS THE PROOF THAT OUR CHILDREN CAN CHOOSE A BETTER LIFE THAN WE DID.
Talia slipped her hand into Dante’s.
The waitress had dropped one attacker in two seconds.
The mafia boss had spent years searching for her.
But in the end, neither of them had rescued the other.
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They had simply found the courage to walk away from the lives other people had chosen for them.
Together.
