Chapter 6 - The Medicine Bottle
Emma’s eyes drifted toward the small medicine bottle on the table.
Maria saw it and pulled her slightly back.
“No touching.”
“I wasn’t,” Emma whispered.
Alessandro looked at the bottle too.
For the first time since his eyes opened, exhaustion cut through his face.
Not weakness anyone would dare mention.
But something close.
The bottle’s label was turned away.
Unreadable.
Its amber glass caught the firelight like trapped honey.
Beside it, the money sat untouched.
Beside the money, the jacket lay folded across Alessandro’s knees, absurdly small and heartbreakingly gentle.
A mafia boss wearing a child’s kindness like a wound.
Maria wanted to take the jacket back.
She also wanted to leave it there forever if removing it angered him.
Alessandro touched the gray fabric with one finger.
Emma smiled faintly.
“You can keep it until you’re warm.”
Maria’s eyes closed in horror.
“Emma.”
Alessandro’s face contorted.
Not rage.
Pain.
He looked down at the jacket as if it weighed more than the cash.
“Why would you give your only jacket away?”
Emma shrugged.
“You were sleeping by the fire but still looked cold.”
Maria’s breath broke.
That was Emma.
Always giving from emptiness.
Sharing crackers when she had one.
Offering comfort to people who would never know what it cost.
Maria had tried to harden her just enough to survive.
But Emma’s gentleness kept escaping.
Now it had escaped toward Alessandro Moretti.
Alessandro leaned forward slightly.
Maria stepped between them again, arms spread.
“She doesn’t understand who you are.”
The words left her before she could soften them.
The room went still.
Alessandro looked up.
His eyes became cold again.
“And you do?”
Maria’s mouth went dry.
No.
Yes.
Not enough.
Too much.
She knew stories.
She knew warnings.
She knew men who spoke his name carefully.
She knew the kind of cars that came and went from the mansion.
She knew envelopes of cash did not sit in libraries because businessmen forgot banks existed.
She knew the staff never crossed him.
She knew children should not stand near him holding secrets carved into wood.
But she did not know why he recognized the bracelet.
She did not know why his hand shook.
She did not know why Emma’s name changed his breathing.
And not knowing was terror.
Alessandro’s voice lowered.
“You are afraid of me.”
Maria’s chin trembled.
“Yes.”
Emma looked surprised.
Alessandro’s eyes moved back to the child.
“And she is not.”
Maria pulled Emma closer.
“That’s because she’s six.”
Alessandro almost smiled.
Almost.
Then his gaze dropped again to the wooden star.
May you like
“No,” he said softly. “That is not the only reason.”
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Alessandro saw something in Emma’s fearlessness that Maria could not explain, and the bracelet made every answer dangerous.
