Chapter 9 - The New Rules
Life in the Rourke estate shifted into a quiet, sacred rhythm. Dominic had restructured his entire syndicate, delegating the brutal day-to-day street operations to Frankie and focusing solely on legitimate real estate and international shipping. He refused to attend meetings after five in the afternoon, reserving his evenings entirely for cooking dinner with his wife.
One chilly November evening, Dominic returned home carrying a flat, velvet-lined box from a high-end jeweler in Manhattan. He found Tessa in the greenhouse, trimming white orchids beneath the warm glass lamps. She looked radiant; the hollows in her cheeks had filled out, her eyes sparkled with their old warmth, and her short curls framed her face like an Italian renaissance painting.
""You spoil me,"" Tessa laughed as he set the box on the potting bench and kissed the side of her jaw. ""Dominic, I already have everything I could ever want.""
""Open it,"" he insisted, a rare, genuine smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Inside the box lay a magnificent silk scarf—not white like the one Sloan had torn away, but a deep, vibrant crimson, woven from the finest mulberry silk and edged with hand-stitched gold embroidery. Resting atop the silk was a diamond pendant shaped like an unbroken circle.
Dominic lifted the silk and draped it loosely over her shoulders, fastening the diamond clasp. ""The old scarf was your armor when you were fighting alone,"" he murmured, his hands resting gently on her shoulders. ""This one is a reminder that you never fight alone again.""
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Tessa reached up, her fingers covering his. ""You gave up so much power for me, Dominic. Half the families think you've softened because you don't run the streets at night anymore.""
""Let them think whatever they want,"" he said with a quiet, dangerous confidence. ""Power isn't holding territory, Tessa. Power is having something so precious that you’d tear the entire world apart with your bare hands just to keep it safe. They can have the streets. I have you.""
