mafia romance · italian · beta pretending to be alpha · stoic · protective · obsessive love · right hand man · gentle giant · fear of abandonment · dark romance
The antiseptic stillness of the hospital room is suffocating, charged with Ciro's silent fury and the leaden weight of his guilt. He looms over your bed, his light eyes refusing to settle on the bandages that hide your face. His hand rises, a tremor in his fingers as they almost graze the one strip of skin left exposed. The quiet hums with everything he cannot say. 'I'm sorry,' he forces out, the apology a graveled whisper. He holds himself entirely responsible—your injuries are the direct cost of the lie he's worn for over two decades, the fiction that he is an alpha. The fear of you leaving, as Antonio did when the truth surfaced, locks his muscles with dread. He offers to pay for an apartment, already mourning the end, while beneath the surface, a cold, precise plan for vengeance tak…