I Survived His Enemies But Not His Love For Another Woman Chapter 09
[Dominic’s POV]
I lock myself in the house. Don’t eat. Don’t sleep. Don’t move from the desk.
The evidence keeps coming in. File after file. Proof after proof. Every ugly thing Mia did, laid out in front of me like a gutting.
How she bought off my men. How she planned to destroy Sera piece by piece. The video at the sit-down. The knife to her own face. The orders she gave at the warehouse.
All of it. Her.
And me? I handed Sera over. Because my family wanted a clean bloodline. Because the Don said she wasn’t good enough.
I threw away the only woman I ever loved. And I became the weapon that killed her.
I keep seeing her face. Those eyes full of betrayal. That proud, beautiful face split open by a blade.
The guilt wraps around my chest tighter and tighter until I can’t breathe.
I hold the ring up. Her ring. Still got dried blood on it from the warehouse floor.
“Sera. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I say it over and over. It means nothing. Even I know it means nothing.
[Sera’s POV]
The Loren family collapses fast.
The video was the spark. My evidence dump was the gasoline. Tax fraud. Money laundering. Trafficking. Murder connections. All of it hits the street at once.
Their stock goes to zero. Banks call every loan. The Corsetti family pulls out. Every partner, every ally, every friend they thought they had vanishes overnight.
The people who used to kiss Mia’s ass won’t even answer her calls now.
She goes begging. To everyone. Gets on her knees in front of men she used to look down on. Every door slams in her face.
Then she remembers. My words. The bounty I put on her head. She figures if she finds me, maybe she can beg her way out of this.
She digs through every contact she has left. Burns every favor. And somehow, she tracks me down to a quiet little café on the Lower East Side.
I’m drinking coffee when she bursts in.
“Sera! Please! I’m begging you! Save my family! Save my father!”
She drops to her knees right there on the tile floor. Makeup smeared. Hair a mess. Nothing left of that pretty, calculated little doll. Just a broken, desperate woman at the end of her rope.
“It was all my fault! I was crazy! I never should have touched you! Please, you’re bigger than this, just tell Dominic to let us go! I’ll do anything! I’ll get on my knees, I’ll kowtow, anything!”
She’s about to slam her forehead against the floor.
I set my coffee down. Slow.
I look down at this woman groveling at my feet like mud. I feel nothing. Not satisfaction. Not pity. Nothing.
“Too late.”
Two words. Light as air. But they land like a death sentence.
Mia’s head snaps up. Her eyes are wild. Cornered animal wild.
“You’re really this heartless?! You won’t stop until we’re all dead?!”
I lean forward. Look her right in the eye.
“Mia. You did this to yourself.”
Before she can scream again, the café door opens. Three men in suits walk in. Badges out. Straight toward her.
“Mia Loren. You’re under arrest. Conspiracy, fraud, assault, attempted murder. We have a warrant. Come with us.”
She goes limp. White as paper. The cops haul her up by the arms.
That’s when the door slams open again.
Dominic.
He looks like hell. Unshaven. Hollow. Wild-eyed. He must have driven here the second someone told him they spotted me.
His eyes find me instantly. My back is to him but he knows. He always knows.
“Sera!”
His voice cracks. Raw. Desperate. He stumbles toward me like a man who’s been drowning for weeks and just broke the surface.
“I found you. Thank God. I knew you were alive. I knew it.”
I turn around. Slow.
I’ve lost weight. I know my face is still pale. The scar across my cheek hasn’t fully healed yet.
But it’s my eyes that stop him dead.
There’s nothing in them. No anger. No hurt. No love. No hate. Nothing. Just empty. Like staring into a window with nobody behind it.
I look at him like he’s a stranger on the street.
Every word he was going to say dies in his throat. I watch it happen. Watch him open his mouth and close it again. Watch him realize that whatever he’s about to say won’t matter. Can’t matter. Not anymore.
“Sera.”
His voice breaks. He sounds like a man begging God for one more minute.
“I’m sorry. I know I fucked up. I know. Please.”
I look at him for a long time. Then I speak. Calm. Quiet. Final.
“Dominic. I loved you with everything I had. I would’ve died for you. I almost did.”
“But you’re the one who tried to kill me.”
He flinches like I shot him.
“Sera, you’re the person I gave my leg to protect. I never told them to kill you. I never meant for any of this.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” I touch the scar on my cheek. Lightly. Almost casual. “This will heal. But what you gave me? I’ll make sure to return it.”
He stares at my ruined face. Everything inside him is collapsing. I can see it. The guilt. The horror. The absolute terror of losing me for real.
“I know you always pay your debts. I owe you. Whatever it costs. I’ll pay it back double. I swear to God I will.”
His eyes go red. He spins around and charges out the café door. Running. Like he’s got somewhere to be. Something to do to fix this. Some grand gesture that’ll make it all okay.
He doesn’t see the truck.
BANG.
The impact is massive. Metal on bone. His body flies through the air and hits the pavement like something discarded.
He doesn’t move again.
I stand inside the café. I don’t flinch. Don’t gasp. Don’t move to the window.
Mia getting dragged away in handcuffs. Dominic dead on the asphalt outside. It all just washes over me like weather. Like a breeze I barely feel.
I sit back down. Pick up my coffee. It’s gone cold.
I take a sip anyway.
Bitter.
It’s over. All of it.
He paid his debt with the only thing he had left. His life.
That’s good enough.
And me? I’m finally free.
This city, this world, all of it. It has nothing left to do with me.
I’m done.