Dante’s POV

"Talk to me," I said. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The voice on the other end was low. "Dante, we have a problem. Melissa is moving faster than we thought. She’s been selling off assets. Liquidating accounts and transferring money to offshore accounts. She’s not just running the company. She’s gutting it."

I closed my eyes, and the rage burned in my chest. "How much has she taken?"

"Billions or maybe more. It’s hard to track; she’s using shell companies and fake names. Offshore accounts. By the time we figure out the full extent, she could be gone. You could be left with nothing."

I stood up. "What about the shares? The ones Ariana signed over to Ricardo?"

"Ricardo has been quiet and too quiet. I think he’s letting Melissa do the dirty work. Then he’ll swoop in and take whatever’s left. You need to step in, Dante. You need to stop her before she steals everything from you. Every day you wait, you lose more."

I ran my hand through my hair. "I know, I know I need to do something, but I can’t just walk in there and announce I remember everything. Melissa will panic and run off, take whatever she can, and disappear. I need to be strategic."

"Being smart doesn’t mean being passive. You have allies.... Marcus can help."

I shook my head. "No. I don’t want Marcus dragged into this. He has other things to deal with, his own problems. I can’t put this on him."

"Other things?" A voice came from behind. "What things could be more important than his best friend?"

I turned to face Marcus, who stood there with his face red and disappointed.

"What things?" Marcus snapped. His voice was loud. Sharp. "What things would be more important than my best friend? Please, Dante. Enlighten me because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’ve been lying to me. Again."

I stared at him, my heart stopped. "Marcu. I can explain."

"Explain?" Marcus walked into the room. He slammed the door behind him. "You can explain? Have you been faking it this whole time? You got your memory back? Your mobility back? And you didn’t tell me? Your best friend?"

I held up my hands. "Marcus, please. Let me—"

"No!" He was shouting now. His voice echoed in the small room. "You don’t get to ’Marcus, please’ me! You lied to me! You let me worry about you! You let me think you were still helpless! You let me fight your battles while you sat in that chair pretending to be helpless!"

I stepped toward him. He stepped back. "I was protecting you. I didn’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.... You’ve already done so much—"

"I don’t care what Melissa would do!" Marcus yelled. "You have no right to decide that for me; I make that kind of decision, and not you. I care about you, and I care about the fact that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth!"

The room was silent.

"You’re right," I said. My voice was quiet. "You’re right. I should have told you. I should have trusted you enough to tell you, but after losing my wife, my family, and now my company, I don’t want to make any more losses than I already have."

Marcus stared at me like he wanted to punch me in the guts.

"When?" he asked. "When did you get your memory back?"

I looked down at my hands. "A month ago. I woke up one morning, and everything was there... like it never left."

"A month?" Marcus’s voice cracked. "You’ve been lying to me for a month? Every day? Every conversation? Every time I asked how you were feeling. You lied?"

I nodded. "I’m sorry, man. I know that doesn’t make it better. I know I hurt you, but I didn’t know what else to do...I didn’t know who to trust. I didn’t know if Melissa had gotten to you. I didn’t know if you were working with her. I didn’t know anything."

Marcus laughed. It was a bitter sound. "You thought I was working with Melissa? The woman who destroyed your life? The woman who blackmailed your wife? The woman who stole your children? You thought I was on her side?"

I shook my head. "No. I didn’t think that, but I couldn’t be sure.... I couldn’t be sure of anything. Melissa is manipulative, and she gets inside people’s heads. She turns them against each other. I didn’t want to take that risk... look what happened with Ariana, I didn’t want it to happen with you too."

Marcus walked to the window, cursing under his breath

"Do you have any idea what it’s been like?" he said, his voice softer now. "Watching you sit in that chair with no memories and your family torn apart and not being able to do anything about it—"

I walked toward him, stopping a few feet away. "I’m sorry, I really am."

Marcus turned to face me.

His eyes were red. "Scared of what?"

"Scared of losing her," I said. "Scared of losing Ariana. Scared that if I came back, if I remembered everything, she would still hate me. She signed away my company, Marcus. She gave it to Ricardo. Why would she do that? What did I do wrong? What did I do to make her betray me like that?"

Marcus stared at me.

His face was unreadable. "You really don’t know?"

I shook my head. "I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know why she signed the papers. I don’t know why she didn’t come to me. I don’t know why she chose fear over trust, and I most certainly don’t know if I can ever forgive her, but I also don’t know if I can live without her."

Marcus sighed.

He walked to the couch and sat down, putting his head in his hands.

"She signed the papers because Melissa threatened her," he said, his voice muffled. "Melissa told her that Asher wasn’t your son. She showed her a fake DNA test. She said she would tell you that Ariana had been lying to you for years. That she tricked you into raising another man’s child."

I stared at him. "What? That’s insane... how would Ariana even believe that"

"I know," Marcus said. "Ariana knew too. She knew the test was fake, but she was scared, Dante. Scared of what you would think. Scared that you might believe Melissa and that you would look at Asher differently. She was trying to protect your son, to protect your family."

I sank onto the couch beside him. My legs wouldn’t hold me anymore. "So she signed the papers and gave away my company for a lie."

Marcus nodded. "She thought she was protecting you... Ariana made a bad choice, but she made it out of love, not out of betrayal."

I put my head in my hands, trying to fight the frustration. "I’ve been so angry at her for thinking she chose Ricardo over me. I thought she sold me out for money. I thought she didn’t love me anymore."

"She loves you," Marcus said. "I don’t think there’s any other woman you’d get in your life that would love you the way she did. You have no idea what it was like to see her walk away after you woke up with zero memories of her."

I looked at him. "Where is she?"

Marcus sighed. "She’s with her mother in Brooklyn. She’s been there for a few weeks. She’s been through a lot, Dante, the baby, the divorce, the children, and finding out about Alan. It’s been... hard."

I stood up. "I need to see her... we need to talk."

Marcus stood up too. He put his hand on my shoulder. "I don’t think this is the right time for that. Now, you need to focus on getting your company back."

"I don’t care," I said. "I need her more than anything right now."

"Don’t drag her into this mess again without taking care of it... Get your company back and put Melissa behind bars."

I sighed.

He was right.

I needed to take care of Melissa first.