Page 132 of Brutal Vows

That look of love for another man that became a turning point in my life.

It’s now aimed at me, and it’s like I could burst with joy and tears at the same time.

“You okay?” she asks softly, the last notes fading as her fingers lift off the keys.

“Yes,” I croak, my voice taut with emotion as I stand closer.

She takes Zoe’s little feet in her hands and plants repeated kisses on both of them, making Zoe gurgle.

I push back on the tightening in my throat, this momentous moment a gift I didn’t see coming.

“Will you ever have more?” I ask. That house is massive. One baby will get lost in it. And the biggest gift Milana gave me since saying yes to our wedding vows, was to prove to me I’m not my father. I’ve never been him and will never be. I’m my own man.

“More what?” Her gaze is open and honest; she’s not getting my question at all.

I look down at Zoe, so content in my arms. “Babies?”

Milana stands and leans into me, her head on my shoulder.

“Of course,” she says as she looks up, laying a palm on my cheek to make me look into her eyes. “But only if they’re yours.”

It’s a promise. It’s love. It’s my whole life ahead of me captured in a few simple words.

“Only if they’re mine?”

She looks down at the piano, reaching a hand out to idly play some keys as if to distract herself from something hard she wants to say.

“Yes,” she murmurs, looking up at me. “Because you’re the love of my life and the best man I’ve ever met.”

More notes flow as I bite down on my jaw, emotion expanding in my chest. I don’t trust my voice.

“We should have at least one boy, who we’ll call Alex,” she murmurs, then bites her bottom lip and looks up at me, eyes blinking with tears, before looking down at Zoe. “And at least one more girl, who we’ll call Masha.”

I nod, my heart in my fucking throat, her words tearing through me. I catch her waist with my free hand and pull her close. “And we promise to give our children the lives their namesakes never had a chance to live.”

“Yes. An easy vow to live by.”

She strokes my jaw and reaches up, and Zoe is there, right between us, a quiet, happy witness to our vow which we seal with the deepest, most ardent of kisses.