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“Granddaughter, huh?”
“And she’s going to be joined by a grandson.” I touched my stomach.
“You’re having a baby?”
“Yup.”
A strange smile came to his face — it sat there strangely, as if he weren’t sure that he should be smiling.
“I’ll look forward to meeting him,” he said finally.
I went to look at Emilio, love in my eyes. He met my eyes. I saw a whole lot of love reflected back at me.
Epilogue
Naelle
MORE THAN TWO YEARS LATER
“Ernesto, stop that!”
My little troublemaker just giggled and took another chunk of his birthday cake. When he jammed it into his mouth, he got sweet frosting all over his chubby cheeks.
“We’re supposed to save that for your second birthday party, Ernesto!” My parents were coming. My dad had retired as soon as I married Emilio, though only my mom came to my wedding. It had taken a while for my dad to really warm up to Emilio, but Ernesto had definitely helped. Emilio leaving the drug business had helped, too; he didn’t want any of his family members being killed by the Omegas. Now, we were one of the major exporters of quinoa to the United States; it was grown in the same fields by the same farmers, and it helped that it was aboveboard and a little easier to transport and distribute. We didn’t have to worry about the government flying crop-duster planes with chemicals that would ruin the crop. We’d cleaned the house from top to bottom to prepare for them, but Ernesto had ruined his birthday cake before the party even started.
Emilio walked into the kitchen carrying Sofia, who looked precious in her sparkly pink dress. I had put her hair in a French braid that morning. It was already falling apart, but she was just cute as ever. She may have been my niece, but we treated her like our own daughter. Despite Emilio’s efforts to find him, Alejandro hadn’t shown up, and he was most likely dead. Sofia was our little ray of sunshine, our precious angel who looked more like Alejandro every day.
He saw the destroyed cake and the red-handed cake thief.
“Don’t worry, cari,” he told me. “We’ll get another cake.”
I just shook my head as he put his free arm around me. I leaned into his strong body.
“Honestly — if this is what Ernesto is like now, I can’t imagine what he’ll be like as a teenager.”
“We’ll handle it.” He kissed my cheek.
“Together, we can do anything.”
