Nine Years of Silence

Summary

At the DeLuca Family banquet announcing its new advisor, Matteo said he was going to end nine years of secrecy and finally acknowledge our relationship in public.

I stood in the back row of the banquet hall, so nervous I'd crumpled my prepared speech into a ball.

Over nine years, I'd cleaned up the port books for him three times, negotiated two cross-border shipping routes, and taken a bullet for him. Everyone knew the DeLuca Family had a female advisor who never showed her face, but no one knew I was that woman.

I thought that after tonight, I would finally stop being his shadow.