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“Oh, you still have your bracelet.” Jodie holds her hand and kisses it. “I had a feeling it would protect you and bring you home to me.”
Then she turns to me. “How can I ever thank you?”
I shake my head. “It was my pride and joy to take care of… Bella.”
I really have to get used to saying that.
“By the way, I’m Jodie.” She offers me her hand. “I’m Leo’s fiancee.”
My eyes grow wide as I shake her hand. “Really?”
So Bella is Jodie and Leo’s baby? She’s Antonio’s niece? No wonder she looks like him. Maybe that’s why she was unearthing his memories, too. What are the odds?
“And you’re Triss. You’re Antonio’s wife, right?” Jodie pulls me in for a hug.
As I pull away, I rub my neck. “Actually, that’s not entirely true.”
“What do you mean?” Allie asks.
I explain everything to them. Afterwards, Allie touches her chin.
“I wouldn’t say you’re not married,” she says. “But then I don’t know the law about that.”
“I think all you have to do is change your name legally,” Jodie tells me. “And then everything will be fine.”
I nod, then sigh. “I don’t know if Antonio still wants to be with me, though.”
Allie gives me a puzzled look. “What makes you say that?”
I shrug. “Well, he’s like a different person now that he has his memories back. He’ll have a whole different life now.”
“Nonsense,” Jodie says. “Antonio is Antonio. His memories may have returned and he may have a different life now, but I’m sure his feelings for you haven’t changed. He married you, Triss. He chose you. He had you when he had no one else. I don’t think he’s going to let you go just because he has other people now. And trust me, I know Antonio well.”
Her confidence gives me hope, but I still feel uneasy.
“Do you still love Antonio?” Allie asks me.
It’s funny. She’s asking me if I still love Antonio when no one’s ever asked before if I love him at all. Not even Antonio.
But I know I do.
“I do,” I answer.
“Even though his father, our father, is the head of a crime organization?” Allie asks.
What?
Jodie chuckles. “You married someone from the mafia without knowing it? But I guess he didn’t know it then, either. It may seem complicated, but actually, it’s not. It doesn’t matter who the person you love is. What matters is that you love him and he loves you.”
Allie nods. “God knows Cain has a dark side, but I love him in spite of it. Maybe I even love him for it.”
“We’re all hopeless,” Jodie says. “But it’s okay as long as we’re all happy.”
They both seem happy. I can’t help but feel envious.
What about me? Will I get my happy ending, too?
Only Antonio can answer that.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Antonio
“I had amnesia,” I answer my father’s question. “I couldn’t remember you. Or you.”
I glance at Leo, who’s beside me.
“Or you.”
I glance at Cain then turn back to my father.
“Otherwise, I would have come home a long time ago.”
“I’m just glad you’re alive.” My father pats my shoulder. “And that you’re home now.”
He gives me another hug.
“Welcome home, son.”
“I’m glad to be home, Dad,” I answer.
I still can’t believe I am or that I have my family back. Now that I do, I feel like I can breathe easy. The shadows that have been hanging over me over the years are now gone.
“Are you staying here at the mansion now?” Leo asks me. “Because Jodie and I sure would love to have you around.”
I can’t believe Leo and Jodie are a couple now, either, and that Lara is actually their daughter, Bella, as Jodie said over the phone. But I’m happy for them, for all of them.
Even so, I’m not sure if I should live with them.
A part of me wants to. A part of me wants to make up for all the lost time and to be with my father now that he’s old. But there’s another part that doubts I belong here. This may be the place I grew up in, and I know I will always be welcome here, but is this where I should be now?
“I think Antonio would rather stay with his wife,” Cain says. “Don’t you?”
That’s one more thing. I don’t know if Triss is still my wife or if we can still have a life together.
“Why didn’t you bring her?” my father asks. “I would have loved to meet her.”
I sigh. “Actually, I’m not sure if I should still stay with her. I don’t want to burden her with… with the kind of life we have.”
It’s strange. In the beginning, Triss was the one trying to protect me from her dark past. Now, it appears I’m the one with the even darker past. And not just the past. My father is still the head of the Ursini clan. Mafia blood runs in my veins. I can’t change that.
