Dominic went still.
“I decided six months ago.”
His gaze dropped to the suitcase.
“And tonight?”
“Tonight I finally believed I could walk through the door without asking permission.”
Nobody in the foyer moved.
Dominic had faced armed men with steadier eyes than the ones he wore now.
Naomi opened the front door.
Cold rain-scented air rushed inside.
She stepped out.
Dominic did not stop her.
That was the first thing he ever gave her that she actually wanted.
A choice.
The door closed behind her.
For a long time Dominic remained where he stood.
The staff slowly returned to their rooms and duties.
Nobody congratulated him for restraint.
Nobody comforted him.
Nobody filled the silence.
The mansion simply resumed breathing without Naomi in it.
And almost immediately, Dominic began noticing the spaces where she had been.
The next morning there was only one cup beside the coffee service.
At noon he passed the library and saw her chair angled toward the window, a crease still pressed into its cushion.
That evening he entered the formal dining room and discovered a single place setting at the head of a table designed for twenty.
He stared at it longer than he should have.
For years he had assumed Naomi preferred eating elsewhere.
Now he asked the cook.
“Where did my wife usually eat?”
The cook hesitated.
“Sir?”
“When I wasn’t here.”
The answer came carefully.
“Sometimes in the kitchen.
Sometimes in the library.”
“Why?”
Another hesitation.
“She said the dining room was too quiet.”
Dominic dismissed him with a nod.
Then he sat alone at the enormous table.
For once, he understood exactly what she had meant.
The humiliation of Naomi’s departure did not stay private for long.
Her absence appeared beside Dominic at every public engagement where she normally stood.
Questions arrived from both families.
Invitations that once addressed Mr.
and Mrs.
Moretti now created awkward conversations.
Dominic refused to invent explanations.
When asked where Naomi was, he said only, “She is away.”
When pressed about whether she was coming back, he gave no answer.
The truth was that he did not know where she had gone.
He had kept his promise.
No one followed her.
The uncertainty was almost unbearable.
Dominic had built power by eliminating uncertainty wherever he found it.
He bought information, demanded reports, and required men to answer their phones before the second ring.
Now the most important person connected to his name was somewhere beyond his gates, and he had chosen not to know.
