The summons comes at breakfast.
I know something is wrong the moment I enter the dining room. All three brothers are already seated—together, which is rare enough.
But it's their expressions that make my stomach drop. Grave. Serious. The lightness of recent days stripped away.
Luca speaks first. Always Luca, carrying the weight of difficult words.
"It's been six weeks, Gianna." His steel-gray eyes hold mine across the table. "The arrangement was clear. You've had time to get to know us. Time to understand what each of us offers." He pauses. "Now, it’s time to choose."
The food turns to ash in my mouth. I knew this was coming. Dreaded it. Hoped somehow it would never arrive.
"We agreed," Santo adds quietly, his pale green eyes soft but resolute. "No more waiting. No more limbo. It's not fair to any of us—the tension, the uncertainty, not knowing where we stand."
He glances at his brothers, then back to me. "It's not fair to you either."
Matteo says nothing. Just watches me with those amber eyes, unusually serious, all trace of his usual charm locked away.
"So what happens now?" My voice comes out steadier than I feel. "You want me to just... point at one of you? Right here, over breakfast?"
"No." Luca shakes his head. "We discussed it. We'll each speak with you privately today. Make our case—not to compete, not to pressure. Just to be honest about what we're offering. What life with each of us would look like."
"And then?"
"And then you decide." His jaw tightens. "As soon as possible."
The silence that follows is suffocating.
I push back from the table, appetite gone. "I need some air."
None of them try to stop me.
Santo finds me in the garden an hour later, where so much has happened between us.
He sits beside me, close enough that our knees touch, and takes my hands in his. His pale green eyes are earnest and open, hiding nothing.
"I'm not going to give you a speech," he says quietly. "I'm not good at those. Luca has the words. Matteo has the charm. I just have... this." He squeezes my fingers. "What I feel."
"And what do you feel?"
"Everything." The word comes out rough. "I feel everything when I'm with you, Gianna. Things I didn't know I was capable of feeling. Things I'd convinced myself I didn't deserve."
He's quiet for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
"I'm not flashy like Matteo. I don't light up rooms or make people laugh until they can't breathe. I'm not powerful like Luca—I don't command empires or make decisions that shape the world. I'm just... me. The youngest. The spare. The one who's always been in someone else's shadow."
"That's not true, you’re—"
"I love you." He cuts me off gently. "Simply. Completely. Without conditions or complications. Choose me, and I'll spend my life making you feel cherished. Every single day, in every small way I can think of."
Tears prick my eyes. "That's not a small thing, Santo. That's not nothing."
"It's all I have to offer." His thumb traces my knuckles. "Just my heart. Just forever. If you want it."
Matteo corners me in the library that afternoon.
No games this time. No stolen books or ridiculous voices. He closes the door behind him and leans against it, amber eyes stripped of their usual heat.
"I know what you're expecting," he says. "Some clever line. Some seduction. That's what I do, right? Charm my way through everything."
"Matteo."
"Let me finish. Please."
He pushes off from the door, crosses to where I'm standing by the window.
"I know what people see when they look at me. Charm. Surface. Nothing underneath worth knowing. A pretty face and a sharp tongue and not much else."
"I've never thought that."
"No. You haven't."
Something softens in his expression.
"That's the thing, Gianna. You see more. You always have. From the very beginning, you looked at me like there might be something real under all the bullshit. And that terrified me."
"Why?"
"Because what if you looked closer and found out everyone else was right? What if there really is nothing underneath?" He laughs bitterly. "It's easier to keep people at arm's length. Easier to perform than to be real."
He steps closer, close enough that I can see the vulnerability he's fighting to hide.
"But I don't want to perform with you. I want to be real. Whatever that looks like. However scary it is."
He takes my face in his hands—gently, so gently.
"Choose me, and I'll worship every inch of you until my last breath. I'll burn bright for you, piccola. Only for you. I'll spend the rest of my life earning what you already give so freely."
Evening finds me in Luca's study.
He doesn't rise when I enter. Just watches me from behind his desk with those steel-gray eyes that see everything—every doubt, every fear, every piece of my heart I'm trying to protect.
"Close the door," he says quietly.
I do. The click echoes in the silence.
"Sit."
I take the chair across from him. Wait.
"I'm not going to promise you easy," he says finally. "I can't. My life is complicated. Dangerous. Full of enemies and responsibilities and choices that would break most people."
He pauses. "I won't insult you by pretending otherwise."
"I know what your life is, Luca."
"Do you? Fully? Because choosing me means choosing all of it. The empire. The violence. The constant threat." His jaw tightens. "I can't promise you soft mornings and quiet evenings. I can't promise you normal."
"What can you promise?"
He rises, rounds the desk, stops in front of me. When he speaks again, his voice is rough with emotion he rarely shows.
"Choose me, and I'll burn the world down to keep you safe. Every resource I have. Every connection. Every breath in my body—yours. I'll protect you from anything. Anyone."
His hand rises, cups my face. "Including myself. I'll fight my own demons every day to be worthy of you."
"Luca..."
"That's all I have, Gianna. That's my offer. Not softness. Not charm. Just the promise that nothing will ever hurt you while I'm alive to prevent it."
That night, I lie awake in bed, staring at the ceiling while three promises echo in my mind.
Choose me, and you'll never doubt your worth again.
Choose me, and I'll burn bright for you.
Choose me, and I'll burn the world down to keep you safe.
Cherished. Worshipped. Protected.
Three futures. Three loves. One impossible choice.