“Lea wasn’t a complication,” I say evenly. “She was the key.”
Alessandro’s eyebrow rises a fraction. “Explain.”
I lean back, crossing one leg over the other. “Without Lea, we wouldn’t have had the leverage to bring Eunji Song into the open. Or known about Isabel’s connection to Moretti. Without Lea, I likely would have been walking into Moretti’s ambush blind.”
“All problems that wouldn’t have existed if you hadn’t involved the girl in the first place,” Alessandro counters. “If you had maintained your focus, eliminated Song quietly when we first identified her, none of this would have been necessary.”
“Perhaps,” I allow. “But then we wouldn’t have uncovered the full extent of their operation. We wouldn’t know about the Vancouver connection. We wouldn’t have the network intact to take over.”
Alessandro moves to his desk, setting down his glass with deliberate precision. “You’re rationalizing, Nicolás. Justifying emotional decisions with strategic language.” His voice softens slightly. “I taught you better than that.”
I feel a flicker of the old frustration. The teenager who could never quite meet his uncle’s impossible standards. But I’m not that boy anymore. I’m the man who just eliminated the greatest threat to our organization in a decade.
“You taught me to recognize assets,” I reply. “To identify leverage points and exploit them. That’s exactly what I did with Lea.”
“And now? What is she now that her usefulness is spent?” Alessandro watches me with hawkish intensity. “An ongoing liability? A loose end to be tied off? Or something else entirely?”
Here it comes; the real reason for this meeting. Not a celebration of victory, but an accounting of my choices.
I set my glass down untouched. “She’s something I never expected.”
Alessandro’s expression hardens. “After everything, you still haven’t learned.”
“I’ve learned precisely the lesson I needed to learn,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “Not the one you wanted to teach.”
“And what lesson is that?”
I stand, refusing to be a supplicant. “That isolation isn’t strength. It’s vulnerability.” I move to the window. “You taught me to build walls. To trust no one. To view every person as either an asset or a threat.”
“Because they are,” Alessandro says simply.
I turn to face him. “Lea saved my life. Not because I ordered it. But because she couldn’t bear to watch me die. She was the one who suggested mercy for Julian, understanding that leaving a man in your debt is more powerful than making an example of him. It was Lea who crafted the plan to trap Isabel and her mother. Tell me, Uncle. Does that sound like weakness to you?”
Alessandro studies me for a long moment. “It sounds like you’ve found someone exceptional,” he finally concedes. “But exceptional people can still be fatal distractions.”
“Or they can make us stronger than we ever could be alone.”
Alessandro sighs, a rare display of genuine emotion. He moves around his desk to stand directly before me, his eyes level with mine. “You’ve always been stubborn,” he says, a hint of fondnesscreeping into his tone. “Even as a child. Once you fixed on something, nothing could dissuade you.”
“I learned from the best,” I reply, the ghost of a smile playing at my lips.
“You think she’s different,” Alessandro says. Not a question. “You think what exists between you can survive in our world.”
“I know it.”
He studies me carefully. “And what exactly do you plan to do about this certainty?”
I hold his gaze. “I’m going to marry her.”
For once, I’ve surprised Alessandro. His eyes widen fractionally, his composure slipping for a heartbeat before he regains control.
“Marry her?” he repeats, as if testing the concept. “After knowing her for what—three months? During which you’ve manipulated her, imprisoned her, and forced her to confront the fact that her entire life was built on lies?” He shakes his head. “Be reasonable, Nicolás. This is a trauma response. The intensity of recent events?—”
“It has nothing to do with recent events,” I interrupt, “and everything to do with who she is. Who I am when I’m with her.”
“And who is that?” Alessandro asks, genuine curiosity in his voice.
I consider the question seriously. “Someone who can see beyond the next move. Someone who understands that maintaining order doesn’t have to mean sacrificing everything human in themselves.” I meet his eyes. “Someone who might actually be worthy of what you’ve built.”
