Dante leaned back in his leather chair, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the glossy wood of his desk. The file Mario had handed him lay open in front of him, numbers and projections sprawled across the page, carefully laid out for his review.

Mario had done his due diligence as always. The proposed expansion was sound, logical, and potentially very lucrative. Any other night, Dante would have been fully absorbed, his mind preoccupied with evaluating the risks and analysing the benefits. But tonight, even the pull of business wasn’t enough to drown out the restlessness simmering inside him.

Practical as ever, Mario had not mentioned anything about his outburst earlier....