"I will be home right after. Please try to understand. Vanessa is a single mother, and she is genuinely sick. What if something happens to her on the way home? She has no one."
I cut him off before he could say another word.
"I understand." My voice was quiet, stripped of everything but the bare, terrible truth. "You want to drive her home because she is sick and cannot take care of herself. While I can very well go home by myself."
"Again with your stupid accusations! It's nothing like that!"
"Then what is it?" Mia's voice held steady, though her hands trembled at her sides. "You and Teodoro both drove here tonight. Why does it have to be you, specifically, who takes her home?"
A flicker of irritation crossed Xavier Salvatore's face. He exhaled through his nose, the sound sharp in the dim foyer of the Salvatore estate, where the chandelier cast fractured light across the marble floor like scattered diamonds.
"Mia, are you jealous of Vanessa again?" He dragged a hand through his dark hair. "How many times do I have to explain this to you? I see her as a sister. Nothing more."
"She's completely alone here." His composure returned, voice dropping into the measured cadence of a man accustomed to giving orders. "Separated from Don Argento, raising a child on her own. How can you not feel sympathy for her? She is my oldest friend. I cannot leave her suffering like that."
"If she's truly separated from Don Argento, then why is she pushing to merge the Argento Syndicate's territory with ours?" Mia stepped back, pulling free of the hand he had placed on her arm. She did not like the way he held onto her while his mind so clearly orbited another woman. "Does she not understand how much trouble a merger like that could bring down on this family?"
Xavier's jaw tightened. The warmth drained from his expression before he forced it back, reaching for her again with practiced gentleness.
"You should stay home and focus on what you do best." His tone was the one he used to close negotiations, final and polished. "When the two families are joined, our territory expands across the entire Silver District. The advantages are enormous. This is business, Mia."