Phantom

Phantom is a standalone dark romance connected to H.D. Carlton's Cat & Mouse Duet series (Haunting Adeline and Hunting Adeline), set in 1940s Seattle during World War II. The story alternates between the perspectives of Genevieve "Gigi" Parsons, a housewife, mother, and lover of gothic literature, and Ronaldo Capello, a high-ranking member of the Salvatore crime family, with diary entries by Genevieve interspersed throughout.

In March 1944, Ronaldo executes a young informant on the Aurora Bridge for betraying the Salvatore family to the rival Baldelli clan. He serves as consigliere, or trusted adviser, to Angelo Salvatore, the capo di tutti i capi (boss of all bosses) of Seattle's organized crime world. The Salvatores have been at war for five years with Don Manny Baldelli, who claims his family has a birthright to control the city. That same day, Ronaldo learns that a man named John Parsons owes the Salvatores five hundred dollars in gambling debts. He drives to Parsons Manor, a gothic house near Puget Sound that is haunted by the spirits of workers who died during its construction. Through a bay window, he sees Genevieve writing in her journal and is immediately consumed with obsession.

Genevieve, thirty-five, discovers through debt notices that John has gambled away their life savings, leaving the family unable to pay their mortgage or afford food for their thirteen-year-old daughter, Seraphina (Sera). John confesses but promises to win it all back, a vow Genevieve recognizes as hollow. She feels trapped: John has refused to let her work, insisting she remain a housewife, so she is entirely dependent on him.

Over the following weeks, Ronaldo watches Genevieve from the tree line outside her home. She notices the figure in a fedora and trench coat but keeps his presence secret from everyone, including John, their family friend and homicide detective Frank Williams, and her best friend Daisy. She is frightened but drawn to him. Frank, meanwhile, pays the Parsons' overdue mortgage and tells Genevieve he will always take care of her and Sera, expressing a personal interest that unsettles her.

In April, Ronaldo enters the manor at night while the family sleeps and stands over John with his revolver, fantasizing about killing him but restraining himself. He begins visiting during the day while John works and Sera is at school, silently touching Genevieve's cheek before departing without a word.

John's alcohol addiction worsens alongside his gambling. One night in early May, he comes home so intoxicated he does not recognize Genevieve and forces himself on her. Later that month, Ronaldo finally speaks, identifying himself and declaring that Genevieve will love him. They share their first kiss.

On June 7, after failing to celebrate Sera's school achievements as promised, John comes home drunk and rapes Genevieve a second time despite her repeated pleas. She endures it in silence to avoid waking Sera. In her diary, she writes that she thinks she hates her husband.

When Ronaldo finds Genevieve hollow and tearful the next morning, she confesses what John did. He is consumed with rage, but she makes him promise never to play a hand in John's death, arguing that losing her father would devastate Sera. He reluctantly agrees. To comfort her, he explains that he calls her mia rosa (my rose) because his father once stole a rose for his mother, removed the thorns so it could not hurt her, and vowed to absorb all her pain. He sings Genevieve to sleep, and she writes that she thinks she loves him.

The Salvatore family faces external threats as well. During a meeting at a neutral-territory restaurant, a car sprays the building with gunfire in an ambush orchestrated by Don Marco Viscuso, a visiting crime boss who secretly allied with Manny Baldelli. Ronaldo tackles Angelo to safety, saving his life. The restaurant's owner, Orazio Caserta, punishes the conspirators by having Marco and Manny's eldest son executed.

Over the summer of 1944, Genevieve and Ronaldo's relationship deepens. In July, she tells him she loves him. In August, he gives her her first orgasm, something she never experienced in sixteen years of marriage. When Angelo orders Ronaldo to kill Manny Baldelli, Ronaldo raids Manny's hideout and shoots both Manny and his wife Carmen, believing Manny is dead.

By September, John owes the Salvatores fifteen thousand dollars. Angelo orders Genevieve kidnapped as leverage, but Ronaldo intercepts Paulie, the enforcer sent to take her, defying Angelo's direct order. Ronaldo secretly pays off the Parsons' remaining mortgage and overdue bills through a Salvatore-connected banker. Angelo punishes Ronaldo with a beating, then has John dragged in at gunpoint. Ronaldo saves John's life by proposing he work off his debt as the family's accountant. Angelo agrees on the condition that John take the oath of omertà, the Mafia code of silence, becoming a formally initiated member of the crime family with no way out except death.

Ronaldo returns to Genevieve bruised and cut, and they consummate their relationship on September 18. Days later, John brings Genevieve to a party at Angelo's estate, where she discovers Ronaldo's true identity as Angelo's consigliere. She confronts him in a powder room, and he reveals the full truth about John's induction into the Mafia. They have sex at the party.

The Parsons' marriage becomes a hollow arrangement held together only by Sera. John strikes Genevieve for the first time during an argument, and she gives up on the marriage but remains for her daughter's sake. Her relationship with Ronaldo intensifies through the fall and winter, both emotionally and sexually. On his thirty-seventh birthday in December, he gives her a ruby rose brooch, telling her that if he could, she would have a ring on her finger instead.

In January 1945, Ronaldo and Genevieve argue about their impossible future. He resents loving her only in secret; she insists his criminal life makes leaving John too dangerous for Sera. They reach a fragile compromise: Ronaldo will step back from taking contracts, and Genevieve will pursue a divorce when Sera turns eighteen. When Ronaldo learns that Manny Baldelli survived his earlier attack, he storms a rival estate with only Paulie at his side. He is shot in the shoulder but presses on, killing Manny a second time along with Manny's protector, Don Leonardo Saputo.

Angelo counsels Ronaldo afterward, revealing he has known about the affair and telling Ronaldo he must decide whether ending lives is more fulfilling than living his own. The advice resonates. Ronaldo returns to Genevieve wounded, and they reconcile, with Ronaldo committing to retreat from violence and Genevieve reaffirming their plan for the future.

In March 1945, Genevieve fabricates a trip with Daisy to spend a weekend alone with Ronaldo in Oregon. He takes her to Multnomah Falls, which he has arranged to have entirely to themselves. After an intensely physical encounter on the Benson Bridge, Genevieve breaks down in tears, realizing she has never explored who she is beyond being a wife and mother. She asks Ronaldo to show her the world: the Atlantic Ocean, waterfalls, art classes, the desert. He promises they will do all of it.

The final diary entry, dated May 16, 1946, is a declaration of love from Genevieve to Ronaldo, affirming that not even death can take their love away. A bonus epilogue set in September 2022 features Adeline Reilly, Genevieve's great-granddaughter and the protagonist of Carlton's Cat & Mouse Duet, and her partner Zade Meadows at Parsons Manor. When an unplugged radio begins playing Frank Sinatra, Adeline glimpses two ghostly figures dancing by the fireplace: a woman with curled black hair and red lips and a tall man in a fedora with a gold pinky ring. She recognizes them as Gigi and Ronaldo, still together in the afterlife, their love having outlasted even death.