Page 131 of Entangled

Gian shrugged. “Toxicology said there was a significant amount of prescription opiate use going back at least two years. It explained why they found bottles of painkillers with her name on it, and the ones I found and took with Dom’s name on them. Doctor shopping, likely. She hid that well.”

“Addicts sometimes do. High-functioning ones, anyway.”

“She was at least four months along in the pregnancy, Cara, so she had to know.”

Cara sighed. “I would think so.”

“That day I found her, I thought she was selfish,” he admitted, “because of what she did to Dom, something that was only meant to hurt me. She couldn’t help herself, clearly, she had to manipulate and play her games even at the end.”

“So?”

“So, then I learn she’s pregnant, too, and it just verified those thoughts. I don’t feel so awful for thinking them, now. I don’t feel as bad for what she did, because I don’t think it was ever about me. It was always about her, that’s just who she was.”

“It’s done now, Gian,” Cara said.

He nodded. “I was wrong when I told you freedom was always weightless. Do you remember that?”

“Of course. I remember everything you’ve ever told me.”

“Sometimes freedom feels heavy, too. Like when you don’t know what to do with it.”

Cara pushed up from her backside to rest on her knees. She leaned forward and kissed Gian softly on his mouth, feeling his lips grow into a sensual smile the longer she held him there. “You’ve got all the time in the world to figure this out, Gian.”

“With you.”

“With me,” she echoed.

“Because I don’t care much about the rest,” he said, holding her gaze, “as long as you’re going to be there with me, Cara.”

“I’m always going to be here.”

Where could she possibly go?

Life and love had entangled her heart and soul with Gian Guzzi.

He was hers.

She wasn’t going anywhere.

“He was wrong. All those years, what he kept repeating to me; he was wrong.”

“Who?” Cara asked.

“My grandfather. Duty. Legacy. And only then, love. Always in that order. That’s what he told me but he was wrong. At least for me. He used to say that if a man failed at his duty, his legacy would be nameless, and his love, hopeless. But that only works if a man loves his duty more than anything else in his life and I never did. I love you far more—I love my son far more. I would have no legacy without love, and then what would be the point of my duty at the end of it all? There would be no point, I suppose. I would have nothing worthy to pass on, nothing to watch grow. Or worse, I would have no one to pass it on to, no one to give all of my legacy. Yet, I do, and it was only because I refused to put duty first. I’m not sure if that counts as failing, or not.”

“Oh, Gian.”

“Yeah, I know.” Gian slipped the wedding band off his finger one last time, and handed it up as though it was an offering for her to take. “A gift I didn’t think I was going to be able to give you.”

Cara pinched the tiny piece of jewelry between her fingers, staring at it for a long while before she said, “One woman to one man, Gian.”

“For the rest of my fucking life, Cara. I promise.”

“Marcus!” Gian whispered loudly down the hall.

Nothing answered him back.

“Marcus, you better not be waking up your brothers, you little monster.”