Aboard a private jet, Tiernan threatens the pilot to increase flight speed and get to New York as quickly as possible. After landing, he hijacks a motorcycle to navigate traffic, and a truck grazes him near the hospital, injuring his knee. He crawls to Lila’s room to find her unconscious. The doctor reports that the surgery was successful and that the baby has a strong heartbeat. Overwhelmed with relief, Tiernan vows never to leave her side again.

He visits Tierney next. Battered but awake, she tells him that Lila is now his first priority and asks him to trust her to find her own way out of criminal life without endangering his family. When he suggests that she marry Achilles for protection, she refuses. Tiernan silently agrees to let her go.

In a brief, reflective passage, Tiernan declares that his will to live has returned and that his purpose is Lila. He no longer intends to die by suicide.

Lila wakes to find Tiernan beside her. He reveals that he struck a deal with the Bratva and that Alex survived. He then confesses his love for her. He promises to love the baby as his own but says that he will always love her more. When Tiernan tells Lila that Chiara is desperate to see her, Lila agrees to see her mother.

Chiara enters and admits that she has been a terrible mother. She reveals that Vello isn’t Lila’s biological father: She was forced into a loveless marriage with Vello, who repeatedly raped her, and she had an affair with her art teacher, Hugo, a kind Swedish painter, conceiving Lila. When Chiara planned to escape with her children, Vello discovered the affair and murdered Hugo. Chiara explains that she saw Lila’s deafness as an opportunity to protect her. Chiara’s fear of violent and abusive arranged marriages stems from her own experience and that of her mother: After years of abuse and infidelity, Chiara’s mother died by suicide.

Lila confirms that Tiernan has never harmed her and makes her happy. She forgives her mother, and they agree to rebuild their relationship. Chiara promises to share memories of Hugo.

After her discharge from the hospital, Lila shows Tiernan the threatening letter she received. He convenes a meeting with Luca, Achilles, Fintan, and Sam. Sam concludes that Lila’s rapist is likely responsible for both the car crash and the letter. Everyone is confused as to why Tiernan hasn’t tried harder to come up with evidence that Angelo attacked Lila at the wedding. Lila intuits that Tiernan was reluctant to investigate Angelo for fear of losing her since she might have been forced to marry Angelo if he was revealed to be the father of her child.

Fintan suggests that while Angelo likely wrote the letter blackmailing Lila, he might not have been behind the car accident. They decide to interrogate Angelo. Later, Lila and Tiernan receive word that Angelo is being brought to the Ferrante basement. Tiernan insists that Lila accompany him to her parents’ house but stay upstairs during the interrogation. As she dresses, he touches her pregnant stomach and speaks to the baby. Overwhelmed by his tenderness, Lila tells him she loves him.

In the Ferrante basement, Enzo, Tiernan, and Achilles torture Angelo, who maintains his innocence. After they shoot off two of his fingers, Angelo confesses that he was with Tierney during the time of Lila’s attack. Enraged, Achilles attacks Angelo and must be dragged off. Tiernan calls Tierney, who confirms the alibi. Realizing that they’re back at square one, Tiernan orders Angelo released.

Later, Tiernan meets with his siblings. Tierney expresses satisfaction at Achilles’s jealous rage. When Fintan asks about next steps, Tiernan lies, claiming that he will simply pay the attacker off if contacted again.

Three days later, Lila receives a text from her attacker demanding that she meet him at Fort Market port with $150,000. Tiernan sends the number to Sam, tells Lila to confirm the meeting, and insists that he will go in her place. Lila argues, wanting to confront her attacker herself, but Tiernan flatly refuses.

Fearing for Tiernan’s safety, Lila breaks her promise and follows him to the meeting. She tricks her bodyguards into thinking she wants to go to a convenience store, holds one at gunpoint, and forces him to drive her to the port. While hiding behind a derelict car, she spots Tiernan moving near the warehouses and a figure in a balaclava army-crawling across a rooftop above him with a rifle. Knowing that Tiernan can’t see the man approaching, Lila takes aim and shoots the attacker in the head. He falls from the roof. Tiernan spins and aims his gun at Lila, not recognizing her in the darkness.

Recognizing Lila a split second after pulling the trigger, Tiernan jerks his aim and misses her. He collapses in relief and then furiously confronts her for endangering herself. Despite his anger, he’s moved by her willingness to risk everything for him, and they kiss before approaching the body.

Tiernan removes the balaclava to reveal a stranger. Lila recognizes him as Roger Carsodo, a longtime employee at her family’s country club. Believing that her attacker is dead, she feels closure. Tiernan sends her to the car and calls Sam, who confirms that Roger has no criminal history. Roger does have a sick daughter, and Tiernan suspects that he was paid by the true attacker to come to the meeting. Tiernan deduces that a wealthy attacker is still at large and decides to let Lila believe the ordeal is over while he secretly continues the hunt.

While driving to her baby shower, Lila learns that Tiernan refused the territory that he’s now entitled to control (in his agreement with the Ferrantes, Tiernan was supposed to get control of a certain neighborhood after killing Lila’s rapist). He tells her that she’s the only thing that matters. At the party, she overhears Achilles and Tierney engaging in jealous banter. Tierney has injured Achille’s mistress as revenge for him torturing Angelo.

After the shower, Tiernan reveals his gift: a lavish mansion including a nursery and a custom art studio. He explains that this home is much more suitable for a child; he can still easily access New York, and she will be close to her parents. Tiernan presents her with hearing aids and leads her to a ballroom where a live orchestra plays a waltz. They dance together as she hears music for the first time. Lila is overwhelmed by love and gratitude, even more so when she realizes that the ballroom is also filled with roses. She no longer associates the flowers with the trauma of her assault.

Lila gives birth at their new home. As the baby emerges, Tiernan sees his thick, dark red hair—the unmistakable Callaghan shade—and instantly realizes that his brother, Fintan, is Lila’s rapist. Tiernan realizes that Fintan has been afraid for months that Lila would out him and that he has tried to kill her twice: once in the car accident and once when he arranged the meeting at the docks. Concealing his rage, he praises the baby and reassures Lila of his love. She names the boy Gennaro, who will go by “Nero.”

Once Lila and the baby are resting, Tiernan rushes to confront Fintan, who he knows is at their father’s home. As he drives, Tiernan receives a panicked phone call from Fintan. Tierney has met the new baby and drawn the same conclusion as her twin; she let Fintan know that Tiernan would be coming for him. Her intention isn’t to let Fintan escape but to prolong his fear. Fintan pleads that he didn’t know Lila was going to become Tiernan’s wife and that he thought she was “too dumb to know what’s happening around her” (459). Tiernan counters that Fintan’s confession means nothing because it only emerged once he was caught; he’s had months to voluntarily tell the truth.

Tiernan lies to Fintan, telling his brother that he will pick him up and drive him to rehabilitation. He gets to the house, where Fintan rushes to greet him. When Fintan embraces him in relief, Tiernan shoots him in the spine and then interrogates and mutilates him as he bleeds out. Fintan confesses to raping Lila, arranging the car accident in hopes of her losing the pregnancy, and then longing to kill her while she was in the hospital. Tiernan shoots him in the head.

Tiernan calls Alex Rasputin: He has realized that Fintan has been spying and reporting to the Bratva, explaining the detailed knowledge that Alex possessed about Tiernan’s life. Alex immediately agrees to pass Fintan’s death off as a Bratva strike and sends Russian men to deal with the crime scene.

Three months after his death, Fintan’s body is found in Nevada. The Bratva publicly claims responsibility, framing it as retaliation for Igor’s death. Tiernan picks up Lila and baby Nero from Lila’s community-college class. When she asks about Fintan’s death, Tiernan tells his one lie: that Alex needed to save face and had his blessing.

At home, they dance in the ballroom without music. Seven weeks later, the perspective shifts to Lila. She has since had cochlear implant surgery. As she nurses Gennaro, she muses that she already knew Fintan was her rapist. Her memory of the attack returned during her 32nd week of pregnancy, and she had been waiting for Tiernan to discover the truth on his own. If he hadn’t killed Fintan, she would have done it herself. It’s a secret that she will take to her grave. Tiernan will never know she remembered.