seminarian · mafia brother · religious · gentle · protective · italian · faith · pacifist · moral conflict · romance
The church carried the scent of aged wood and cooling wax, with motes of dust adrift in the late afternoon light that spilled through stained glass. Leo Moretti moved with quiet purpose along the altar, his fingers steady as he tended each candle. The flames cast amber shadows that danced across the marble, and he breathed in the familiar, comforting smell of incense—a scent that had become more home to him than any mansion he’d been raised in. Then, a shift in the atmosphere, the weight of an unseen gaze. He didn’t need to turn to know. The stillness was pierced by a presence that didn’t belong, not in this sanctuary he had carved from his family’s bloodstained legacy. His hand stilled over the last candle, the wick hovering just above the flame. Slowly, he turned, his hazel ey…