His jaw tightens, “You shouldn’t have done that, Liliana.”
“I’d probably make the same choice if I had to,” I reply easily. “I wasn’t going to stand by and watch while you were shot, Rafaelle.”
His eyes sent a wrench straight through my heart. The shadows in his eyes flash.
“Listen to me and listen to me good because I’m only going to say this once, alright?”
I nod, anticipation curling within me.
“There is no version of this earth where you are not at my side, Liliana. If you had died, your sacrifice would have meant nothing because I would have followed you. Maybe not physically because our daughter is still here. But in all the ways that count. My heart would have been buried with you. Which means you would have been condemning two people to death because of your foolish actions.”
A tear slides down my cheek as warmth invades every inch of me, “I did it because I love you.”
“I know. Which is why I’m not angry.”
“You’re not?”
“I’m so fucking tired of anger, Liliana. Right now all I want to feel is you. I want to feel gratitude that you’re alive and safe. I want to feel all the happiness in the world that you’re still here. You’re going to be okay. I have you and I have my daughter. Nothing else matters.”
The mention of Mila has my heart rate climbing.
“She’s safe?”
“No thanks to you.”
I groan, “Don’t be mean, Rafaelle. If I hadn’t come back, you’d be dead. And then what would I have done? It was all my fault in the first place. None of this would have happened if I had made better choices.”
“You made your choices, and you have to own them. But don’t for a second blame yourself for what those assholes did.They’re gone, buried six feet under. All that’s left is here and now. You don’t need to apologize to me anymore for what you did.”
“You missed months with your daughter,” I whisper.
“I have decades more with her. It all worked out in the end.”
“How can you be so forgiving?” I ask, confused.
“Because I love you,” he says simply, leaning forward to press a kiss to my forehead, “I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you since that night when I walked into the bar and you were standing on that stage. They may as well have been a halo around your head. You were practically glowing, Liliana. You brought so much light into my life. How could I not love you?”
My heart surges and now the machines are really going haywire. Rafaelle glances at them with a small smirk. But he continues speaking.
“I hate that we wasted so much time. But we have a lifetime to make up for it all. If you want that, of course.”
“A lifetime with you sounds like paradise, Rafaelle,” I say, my eyes wet.
He quickly presses a soft kiss to my lips before exhaling softly.
“I’m going to go get your doctors so they can examine you. They said you were going to wake up soon. The surgery was successful, and they got the bullet out. But you’re going to have to take things easy for a couple of weeks,” he informs me.
I nod in understanding, “Could you please bring Mila here when you leave?”
“Sure thing, baby. She’s with Marisol right now. They’re out in the hallway. Should I let your mother come in, too?”
“Yeah,” I murmur, glad she’s also safe.
It feels impossible that I survived it all with my whole family intact. And I might not know what the future will bring, but I know if I have Rafaelle at my side, it’ll all be okay.
* * *
Three Weeks Later.
