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He grabs my shoulders and sits us both up, his smile so wide, warm, and filled with love. His blue eye glitters like he’s on the verge of crying, but his brown eye is steady as if holding the mafia side of him, the savage who will always protect our family.
“I love you,” he says, “and I love our baby. I love our lives. I love that the city’s safe. I love that you and Rosa are friends. I love everything all the time.”
He breathes quickly, more exhilarated, happier than I’ve ever seen him. He’s almost like a little boy with how much happiness is bubbling up in him.
“I can’t wait to meet our children.”
“Children?”I say, laughing, so flooded with a warmth I can barely imagine.
“We’ve been so lucky, Emma—finding each other, surviving everything we have, and Rosa’s blessing. Yet I think we have a little luck left. I think we’re going to have twins.”
He leans back, creating enough distance for him to slide his hand across my belly.
“Whoever they are,” he continues, “I’ll always love and protect them. That goes for their mother too.”
He guides his lips to mine, kissing me, taking me back to the first time we kissed when it was all confusion and lust and never knowing if we could be something real. I never have to doubt anymore.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
Leo
I bob Rosie and Damien up and down on my knees, cradling their little bodies in my hands. The first time I held them like this, I was stunned by how small they were. Not that the twins aretechnicallysmall for their age. They’re healthy, happy, and growing every day. Still, they felt so tiny, and my heart beat with such a sense of responsibility, awakening so many more protective impulses inside me.
It’s late. The ceiling dials spin, sending blue spaceships and stars around the room. Emma was asleep when I woke. I kissed her tenderly on the cheek, studying my sleeping wife, with her curly, sweaty, and mom-messy hair across her face. She’s so beautiful in her dedication to motherhood. That doesn’t stop her from being sexy. Her curves are even more tempting now. She gets this flushed, excitable look after breastfeeding that drives me nuts.
I heard our little ones crying on the baby monitor. Since there was some bottled milk, I could tend to them. Damien makes a cooing noise that shatters my heart a little. I can forget about the other half of my life at times like these. I can forget Fyodor’s fellow inmates stabbed him to death in his cell. Apparently, these inmates were paid by some shadowy figure nobody could find. It was necessary, after all he did.
Damien and Rosie will never know that part of life. They’ll never have to worry about the ugliness interfering with them. Whatever and whoever they want to be, we’ll be there—me and their beautiful, perfect mother, the woman I am privileged to call my wife.
“I could watch you all night,” she says.
I smile as she walks into the room wearing one of my T-shirts. It’s baggy but still shows her thick thighs, curvy shape, and the perfection of her new maternal figure.
“You look so beautiful when you’re sleepy,” I tell her, meaning every word.
She plays with her curly hair. “Really?”
“Don’t be modest. You know how crazy you drive me.”
“Which one am I stealing, huh? I need a shield.”
“Ask them.”
She rolls her eyes, laughs, and then leans down. We play this game when I’m bobbing them on my knee like this. Rosie coos and lifts her arms, making cute baby babbling noises.
“I think you’ve got your answer,” I say, laughing.
“She choseyoulast time, remember?” Emma grins, scooping our daughter up and cradling her to her chest. “She’s a smart girl. She doesn’t want to create any problems between Mommy and Daddy.”
“You hear that, D? That means you have to choose Mommy next time.”
“I had the scariest dream,” Emma says a moment later, rocking side to side with Rosie. “I thought it was the day I came to visit Rosa. Remember the day in the garden?”
“It’s hard to forget a naked man running rampant in your house.”
She smiles, but there’s real fear in her eyes. “I was scared and confused at the time. Just now, I dreamed I had visited, me and Rosa had a nice lunch, and then I went to my new place. I started my new job. You didn’t kidnap me. We didn’t fall in love. We didn’t have Damien and Rosie. I dreamed my life went as planned, and that’s the most terrifying thing I can think of.”
