Chapter 5 - The Unseen DepartureIt was a Tuesday morning in November, cold enough that Isabella’s breath clouded the inside of the garage before she started the car. Rain from the night before had frozen in thin black ribbons along the driveway of the seventeen-room stone house.
Dante had left for an early morning syndicate meeting across the city.
Isabella had spent the entire night packing. Now, two sleek leather suitcases sat neatly in the trunk of her car.
She walked back inside the silent, massive house for the last time. Her footsteps echoed off the marble foyer. She didn't leave a trail of destruction. She didn't trash the kitchen or slash his suits.
On the kitchen island, right beside the copper coffee maker where Dante always stood waiting for his morning brew, she placed a single, handwritten note on heavy cream stationery.
She did not write a paragraph of grievances. She did not yell, beg, or accuse.
She wrote a single sentence:
Dante, I left the ivory scarf in the glove box where it belonged; you can keep the empire, but you lost the only real thing you ever had.
She signed it simply: Isabella.
She walked out the front door, locked it behind her, and slid the iron key into the brass planter on the porch.
May you like
She got into her car, backed out of the icy driveway, and drove away without looking back in the rearview mirror.
By noon, her flight was airborne over the Atlantic Ocean, cutting through the gray clouds toward London, leaving the frozen Chicago harbor and the mighty Moretti empire far behind.
