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“Hey!” Gio breaks the silence and jumps to his feet. “Look, it’s the newest member of the family, and his much-better-looking other half!”
“Fiancée now!” Elsie intercedes.
“Shit!” Gio exclaims, and everyone else congratulates us and cheers.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into Sophia’s ear while Kayla squeezes my palm and lets go to hug her parents. “I didn’t mean for the engagement to take over your birthday party.”
“Eh,” Sophia says. “I don’t mind. I’m happy.” She hugs me tighter. “This just means I get to be your flower girl, and I don’t know if you heard, but I really love being the flower girl.”
I chuckle. “Wouldn’t have picked anyone else.”
“Duh! I’m, like, your niece. You have no choice.”
“Don’t make me change my mind,” I tease.
She giggles. “I love you, Uncle A.”
“Ditto, kid.”
She places her head on my shoulder just as Raph steps up to us.
“Congratulations. Happy for you both.”
I stare at him, kind of happy I didn’t kill him. I let my rage win then. I don’t want it to anymore. I give him my hand, and he takes it without hesitation.
“Appreciate it.”
Now that I’m here, I’ve wanted to ask him something for a while, and it feels like we’re in a good place for me to do that.
“By the way…” I whisper. “How did you escape that bomb I set in your car?”
He chuckles dryly. “Michael had all the vehicles strapped with some high-tech bomb detection device he purchased through his lawyer from some underground tech company called Apt?—”
“Avenue?” I snicker. “No fucking way.”
“You know it?”
“Yeah.” I grin. “I run it.”
His amused laughter increases. “You’re telling me your own device saved me?”
“Apparently.” My head shakes. “I’ve gotta be careful who I sell to.”
“Damn.” He slaps my back. “Thank you.”
I feel a bit better, here with them. The hate I’ve felt for so long has closed its chapter, and in its place is a new one with blank pages. I have the power now. I can write whatever I want in it, and I choose to writethis.
KAYLA
Together, with all the people who matter most, we watch Sophia blow out all seven candles on her cake. Adriel’s arm is secured around me where it belongs. I crave this man, want him and need him on a level even I don’t comprehend. Maybe it’s unhealthy. Maybe it’s wrong to want someone this much, but I don’t care. I’ve been so lost in this world for so long; now I have someone keeping me steady.
I lay my head on his arm as everyone claps for Sophia. She’s the light of this family, and seeing the way Elsie is with her makes my heart twinge. I’ve never felt it before, not in the other times I saw them together. But now? It hurts. And I hate it.
“You okay?” he whispers down to me, as though sensing my pain.
And when our eyes connect, I shake my head. Because I refuse to lie.
He kisses my temple, knowing exactly why I’m hurting. Though I’m unsure if I could even mother a child in the first place, I hate that I’ll never know. Hate that one more thing has been stolen from me, ripped from my body like the rest of me was.
