He Let Me Bleed So I Let Him Go Chapter 33
The next time Elena heard news of Dante De Luca was three years later.
She was at home, organizing reinforcement drawings for an old hotel restoration.
She was now the lead structural engineer on the project and had co-founded her own firm. Every contract on her desk was signed in the name of Elena Marino.
Beside her lay an internal notice Luca had brought back from a Five Families Committee meeting.
She flipped it open casually, then her hands stilled.
The headline was stark and unambiguous.
[Former De Luca Family Head Dante De Luca Permanently Stripped of Identity and Protection Privileges]
According to the notice, after Bianca’s attack, she had been taken into the committee’s custody.
Dante had not pleaded for her.
Instead, not long after, he had used his authority as Don to take full responsibility for her punishment, removing her to an old De Luca property under the guise of internal discipline.
He never turned her over to the committee.
For three years, he kept Bianca a prisoner in that house, making her pay, again and again, for every single wound she had inflicted on Elena.
By the time the committee’s enforcers found the house, Bianca was already dead, her body destroyed by years of abuse.
Dante did not run. He did not defend his actions.
At the judgment table, before all five Families, he said only one sentence.
“She destroyed the most important person in my life. I made her repay the debt.”
His words earned him no mercy.
He had abused the authority of the Don, broken his promise to the committee, and exposed the De Luca family to the threat of a blood feud.
The committee stripped him of his position, permanently erased his name from the protection rolls and revenue records, and exiled him to an old estate in Sicily, never to leave for the rest of his life.
Unable to bear her son’s downfall and the looming threat of vengeance, Carmela’s heart failed, and she passed away a few days later.
Elena finished reading the notice, her expression unchanged.
“What are you reading?”
Luca’s voice came from behind her.
He came around the sofa, braced one hand on the back, and bent to rest his chin gently on her shoulder.
Elena turned the notice over, hiding the text.
She tilted her head to look at him, her nose almost brushing his cheek.
“I just wanted to look at you for a little longer.”
The smile in Luca’s eyes deepened.
He lowered his head and kissed the corner of her forehead.
“Then keep looking,” he said softly. “I’ll never be the one to tell you when it’s enough.”
The California sun streamed through the window.
In front of Elena were blueprints she had created, bearing her own name. Beside them lay the sapphire ring, a symbol of protection she could wear or remove as she pleased.
The past was a distant country.
She had no reason to look back anymore.