dante-44

She sleeps with the window cracked. Two in the morning and the city hums through it, and I lie there learning the sound of a place that doesn't owe me anything yet.

I count what I have. A wife. A name. A ring that means I answer to one person before I answer to anyone. That's the whole empire, day one. The rest is just territory.

She turned over once and put her hand on my chest like she was checking the merchandise still ran. I covered it with mine and let her sleep.

The first knock came at dawn.

Not on the door. On the phone. A number I don't know, a voice that knew mine anyway. “Dante.” That's all he said, then a silence that meant he expected me to fill it.

I didn't.

He told me there's a debt in this city with my name half-written on it. Wants to know if I'm the man who collects or the man who gets collected. I told him I'd think about it. That's a lie I tell so the truth lands harder later.

Kiki was awake by then, watching me from the bed the way she always does. Not asking. Waiting.

I sat on the edge and told her the truth before I did anything else. First promise holds. She sees everything first.

“You're going,” she said. Not a question. Not permission. A fact she'd already made peace with.

“I'm coming back,” I said. “That's the part you hold.”

The empire doesn't start with money. It starts with somebody knocking and me deciding, with her watching, which man answers the door.

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