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“Your daddy’s a devil, they say. But who keeps the baddies away? He’s your shining knight by day. And at night…”
“Keep going,” Elio says from the doorway, his voice husky.
I turn, a smile spreading across my lips. He leans in the doorway, shirtless, still looking a little sweaty from what we did before I came to check on her. I’m not ready for the real thing just yet, so soon after the birth, but my man has other ways to make me tingle.
“I can’t think of another line.”
He walks over, smiling, kissing me, then reaching into the crib and gently touching Molly. “I’m a devil, they say?” he says.
I laugh quietly and kiss him again. “Well, they do.”
“You’re right,” he says. “I will keep the bad guys away. Always.”
“You’ve done it so far.”
“We’vedone it. This life… your music… Dad getting better… that evil piece of—” He cuts himself off before he curses in front of Molly. “ThatShankgetting shanked in prison. It’s been a good year, and we did it as a team.”
“My music is…”
“Is what woke Dad up,” he says passionately. “You heard the doctor. It was a clear sign.”
He holds me tightly. I cling to my man, savoring the love, the warmth, the belonging, knowing there’s nowhere else I would ever want to be except here, with my family.
EPILOGUE
SEVEN YEARS LATER
Leonardo Marino
I sit on the couch, Molly on my knee, love and family in my heart as my daughter-in-law sings for the whole family and theFamily. We’re gathered in the restaurant where they first met, where they locked eyes and felt their souls fuse.
“Mommy is so good,” Molly says, jigging up and down on my knee.
I’ll never be able to explain how grateful I am to be able to hold her in place, trusting my body. Luca sits on the couch beside us with his wife. Elio is on the other couch with his other two children—my grandsons. Beside me, Alessia sits forward, watching the performance.
We’re in the bar lounge area, and the well-respected and successful singer, Scarlet Marino, has graced us with her presence. Her song notes flutter into the air. I remember the first time she sang in the apartment. I was trapped in a cage inside my mind, but she broke me free.
Alessia gently touches my arm. Love burns between us. It’s a changed kind of love. It will never be what it was before she cheated, but it will always be there.
“I still don’t know how you did it, Dad, how you forgave her,”Elio told me a few years ago.“I’m glad you did. The kids need a grandmom and a grandad. You seem happy, but…”
I touched his arm, telling him,“Of course you don’t, son. Anybody who looks at you and Scarlet knows that nothing could ever make that happen. There is no straying. You have a rare thing. A perfect marriage.”
“I’m not saying that,”Elio muttered for my benefit. The poor boy thought he’d offended me.
I touched his arm again, squeezing it this time.“I mean it,”I told him, getting teary-eyed. I’m not ashamed of that. Sometimes, there are things we can come back from stronger. I sure did.
Elio looks over at me, smiling, happier than I ever thought I’d see him. “Daddy,” little Leo says, reaching up for his father’s hand.
THE END
