Chapter 8 - The Life Sadie Thought She Had Lost
Dominic had spent his adult life building an empire around survival.
Some parts were legitimate.
Real estate.
Transportation.
Restaurants.
Construction.
Other parts existed in shadows he no longer wanted Sadie near.
Federal investigators offered him a path.
Cooperate fully.
Separate legitimate businesses from illegal operations.
Provide records.
Accept financial penalties.
Close the door permanently on the world his father had left him.
Carmine read the proposal.
“You do this, there’s no going back.”
“That’s the point.”
“You’ll lose people.”
“I know.”
“Money.”
“I have enough.”
“Power.”
Dominic looked toward the city.
That word once mattered.
Now it sounded strangely empty.
“What exactly did power buy me, Carmine?”
Carmine did not answer.
Dominic continued.
“My mother nearly died in her own house because of my name.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“No. But I can decide what the name means next.”
Carmine smiled faintly.
“Sadie.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What about her?”
“She changed you.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
Carmine raised an eyebrow.
“She reminded me I could change myself.”
That distinction mattered.
Dominic signed.
The following months were difficult.
Businesses were audited.
Assets were sold.
People left.
Some called Dominic weak.
Others called him smart.
He ignored both.
For the first time, he was building something without fear holding the foundation together.
Sadie was building too.
Nursing school was harder than she remembered.
She studied late.
Worked weekend shifts.
Failed one pharmacology quiz and cried in her car for twenty minutes.
Dominic found her there.
“I got sixty-eight percent.”
“Is that catastrophic?”
“It feels catastrophic.”
“I can have the professor—”
Sadie looked at him.
Dominic stopped.
“That was a joke.”
“It absolutely was not.”
“Mostly a joke.”
Sadie laughed despite herself.
He handed her coffee.
“You’ll do better next time.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you ran into a burning building. I refuse to believe pharmacology is stronger than you.”
She passed the next exam with ninety-two percent.
Rosa framed it.
Sadie threatened to hide all future grades.
A year passed.
Then another.
Dominic’s world became quieter.
He sold the penthouse.
Sadie thought he was joking when he told her.
“Why?”
“Too big.”
“You said that apartment was perfect.”
“I was wrong.”
“Dominic Castile admitting he was wrong?”
“Don’t make this unpleasant.”
He bought a townhouse near Rosa.
Nothing modest by Sadie’s standards, but it had a kitchen Dominic actually used.
Badly.
One Sunday, Sadie arrived and found flour across every surface.
“What happened?”
“I attempted bread.”
“You attempted a burglary and used flour as a weapon?”
Dominic stared at her.
Rosa laughed from the dining room.
Life became ordinary.
And ordinary became precious.
Sadie completed her clinical rotations.
The first time she wore scrubs into a hospital as a nursing student, she stood in the restroom staring at herself.
She thought about her father.
About the nurse in the grocery store.
About the night she abandoned school because tuition and rent had become impossible together.
About Rosa.
About fire.
She cried quietly.
Then washed her face and went to work.
On graduation day, Rosa sat in the front row.
Dominic sat beside her.
Carmine sat beside Dominic.
When Sadie’s name was announced, Rosa stood first.
Dominic followed.
Then Carmine.
Sadie walked across the stage with tears in her eyes.
She had believed this life was gone.
It had only been waiting.
Afterward, Dominic found her outside.
She was holding her diploma.
“You did it.”
“I did.”
“I have something for you.”
Sadie immediately narrowed her eyes.
“If it has four wheels, diamonds, or property deeds, I’m leaving.”
“It doesn’t.”
He handed her a small box.
Inside was her old nursing-school identification card.
The one she had thrown away years earlier.
Sadie stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
“Rosa.”
Sadie turned.
Rosa smiled from several feet away.
Dominic had placed the old ID inside a simple frame.
Below it was a small engraved line.
She came back.
Sadie covered her mouth.
“That’s unfair.”
“What?”
“You made me cry.”
“You cry frequently.”
“Not helping.”
Dominic smiled.
Sadie wrapped her arms around him.
“I love you.”
He froze.
She pulled back.
“What?”
Dominic stared at her.
Sadie’s eyes widened.
“Oh.”
“No.”
“Oh my God.”
“No, Sadie.”
“I said it first.”
“That’s not why I—”
“You’re terrified.”
Dominic Castile, once feared by half the city, looked completely helpless.
Sadie began laughing.
He pulled her back.
“I love you too.”
She stopped laughing.
He touched her face.
“I think I have for a long time.”
“How long?”
“The diner.”
“That early?”
“You insulted the meatloaf.”
“I was protecting you.”
He kissed her forehead.
Then he whispered:
“There’s one more place I need to take you.”
An hour later, Dominic’s car stopped on a familiar Chicago street.
Sadie looked through the window.
Her smile disappeared.
Across the road stood Rosa’s brownstone.
The house where everything had begun.
Only now, it had been rebuilt.
May you like
And there was a sign beside the front door that Sadie had never seen before.
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