‘You said I owe you nothing.’
‘You don’t.’
‘Then stop buying pieces of my life.’
Vincent went still.
Nobody spoke to him that way.
Isabella, sitting near the window, hid a smile behind her tea.
Vincent finally nodded.
‘Fair.’
Chloe studied him suspiciously.
‘Fair?’
‘Your medical treatment was my responsibility because you were injured protecting my mother.
I won’t apologize for paying it.
But nothing else changes without your permission.’
That boundary mattered.
Over the next month, Vincent kept it.
He arranged security but allowed Chloe to choose who accompanied her.
He offered a Rossi-owned apartment and accepted her refusal.
When she returned to her small place after discharge, two discreet guards stayed outside rather than occupying her living room.
He never asked her to pretend to be affectionate.
He never asked her to attend his meetings.
And he never repeated the word wife in private.
Outside, however, the rumor had taken on a life of its own.
The waitress who took four bullets for Isabella Rossi had become Vincent Rossi’s mysterious bride.
That story irritated Chloe until she realized it was working.
Nobody followed her home.
Nobody approached her at rehabilitation.
Nobody from the Moretti orbit came within fifty yards of her.
Meanwhile, Tommy began talking.
Not because Vincent threatened him, Chloe later learned, but because Tommy discovered the Morettis were preparing to disown him publicly and claim he had acted alone.
Tommy had spent years doing their worst work.
Being abandoned after one failed job made loyalty suddenly less attractive.
He gave investigators the name of the intermediary who had delivered the order.
The intermediary denied everything.
Then investigators showed him the phone records.
He changed his story.
What followed wasn’t a cinematic war in the streets.
It was slower and, for the Morettis, more damaging.
Search warrants hit offices tied to their construction companies.
Financial records were seized.
Contractors who had stayed silent for years suddenly received subpoenas.
Tommy’s testimony connected the assassination attempt to a broader pattern of extortion and illegal payments.
The Moretti leadership publicly called him a liar.
Privately, they started blaming one another.
Vincent did something his rivals hadn’t expected.
He let the legal pressure work.
Weeks became months.
Chloe learned to walk without favoring her injured leg.
Her shoulder slowly regained strength.
She returned to nursing classes on a reduced schedule and eventually began clinical rotations again.
Vincent appeared less often than she expected.
When he did visit, he brought coffee rather than jewelry.
Their conversations changed.
At first, Chloe asked questions about security.
Later, they argued about hospital funding, the Bulls, terrible diner coffee, and whether Isabella secretly enjoyed manipulating both of them.
Isabella denied that accusation with such dignity that neither believed her.
One evening, nearly eight months after the shooting, Chloe returned to the Silver Spoon for the first time.
