“Delete My Number,” She Said—Then Six Men Stepped Aside for the Crime Lord She’d Been Secretly Writing To
Chapter 4
They escaped through the kitchen.
Matteo kept one hand around Clara’s wrist as they ran into the rain.
His men surrounded them.
Horses waited behind the inn.
Clara climbed into the carriage.
Matteo followed.
The wheels tore through the muddy road.
“Where are we going?”
“My house.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t go to a crime lord’s house.”
“You can if the men chasing you intend to kill you.”
Clara fell silent.
After several miles, she finally asked:
“Why protect me?”
Matteo looked out the window.
“Because your letters reminded me that I wasn’t always the man people fear.”
Clara stared.
“You never told me that.”
“I wasn’t ready.”
“Tell me now.”
He hesitated.
“My younger brother died because I trusted the wrong man.”
Clara softened.
“Who?”
“Edmund Vale.”
The name changed everything.
Matteo explained that Vale had betrayed his family.
He had manipulated Matteo’s father into signing false contracts.
He had arranged his brother’s death.
And when Matteo tried to expose him, Vale threatened everyone Matteo loved.
“So you became what he feared.”
Matteo smiled bitterly.
“I became what the world expected.”
Clara looked at him.
“Are you a murderer?”
“Yes.”
She flinched.
He didn’t hide it.
“But I have rules.”
“What rules?”
“I don’t hurt children. I don’t harm those who cannot defend themselves. And I never force loyalty.”
Clara remembered his letters.
He had never once demanded anything from her.
Not even her name.
They reached his estate before dawn.
It was an old stone manor overlooking the river.
Six guards surrounded it.
Clara stepped inside.
She expected darkness.
Instead, she found a library filled with books, maps, letters, and shipping records.
Matteo led her to a desk.
“You can sleep here.”
“You’re giving me a room?”
“You’re not a prisoner.”
She looked at him.
“Then why does it feel like one?”
“Because you’re afraid.”
Clara looked away.
Matteo left.
For the first time, she realized something.
The man she had feared for years had given her the one thing nobody else had.
A choice.
