12. Epilogue
Aria
A year later - Christmas
This Christmas, we have so much to celebrate. It”s our first wedding anniversary and our son”s first Christmas. Really, it”s also our first Christmas together since we didn”t truly celebrate last year.
We also have the success of my bookshop, which I suspect is in part to my husband, even if he won”t admit to it. The bookshop is making money and so much so that I was able to hire a manager. It’s worked out perfectly as I only have to work part-time when I want. The rest of the time, I stay home with my family.
Though I still go in a few times a week to check on things. Because I love reading new books and finding books to stock the shelves with, I do much of the ordering. Whenever there’s an event, I”m there taking part. One of the other fun aspects of the job is planning those events.
Seeing my dream come true and only having to do the parts of the business that I love allows me freedom and gives me complete joy. I know not everyone”s this lucky, so I count my blessings daily.
After getting permission, I was able to bring Bella in to work part-time. She loves reading books and helping me find ones to stock just as much as I do. One advantage of having her help is that she has gotten fantastic at predicting trends and figuring out what will sell.
True to his promise, Matteo keeps me involved in everything going on with the family. He comes and talks things over with me. Something my father has made clear he doesn”t approve of at all.
There hasn”t been a single thing he”s done yet that I haven”t been in agreement with him. I was never a fan of all the violence and all in our lifestyle, yet once our son was born I knew I”d kill to protect him.
Don”t get me wrong, Matteo will make snap decisions in the heat of the moment when needed. But he always tells me why, and we talk about things and he knows my opinion and he always takes that into consideration.
My father thinks that Matteo should run the family how he sees fit. Because he”s the leader, he can tell me what”s going on, but my opinion should not factor in. Matteo told them that is just not how we run things and my father says that if it works for us, so be it.
The relationship between Matteo and my family has made both of us stronger. He and my dad teamed up to take down Eric”s family together.
After I was kidnapped, they had to move fast. They didn’t want to give Eric’s family a chance to regroup from Eric”s death. But Orlando stepped up to help out as well. They took out all the higher ups and divided up their businesses and assets. The Ricci family is no more.
Even though I should feel sad or upset about this, in reality, the only emotion I feel is relief. Matteo did discover who killed his father. So many were willing to give up the information in exchange for their lives. Although not one of them lived.
Matteo killed the man himself. He put a bullet into his head instead of the torture he had planned before meeting me. I would never deny him the revenge but I”m glad that he didn”t string it out.
”All right, here”s our little man with a fresh clean bum, his bottle, and ready for presents,” Matteo says, stepping into the living room.
Our son isn”t even six months old. He”s not going to understand Christmas, or what is going on at all. But I think we are doubly excited for him.
My husband woke me up with an orgasm for Christmas morning and then we went and woke up our son. The tree is full of presents, and I”m pretty sure that our son is about to be spoiled. Setting a really bad precedent for future Christmases.
We”re doing our own thing this morning. Then our family is getting together with my parents, my extended family and we’re having a joint Christmas dinner.
I told my husband that the chances of our son showing even excitement for a gift or understanding what”s going on are very slim to none and he knows it. He said, overall, he”s more excited to give me my Christmas gift and I can understand that because I”m excited to give them his as well.
We spend the first hour of Christmas morning trying to get our son to open his gifts. We didn”t use a lot of tape. But his grip isn”t all that strong.
A few toys seem to grab his attention, but he”s more interested in drinking his bottle and trying to flip himself over because he did that for the first time yesterday, and has been trying ever since. I know once he rolls over, he”ll be on the move soon. If he”s anything like his dad, he will not slow down.
When our son finally falls asleep, Matteo reaches under the Christmas tree and hands me my gift.
Opening it, I find tickets to Bali. I”ve been talking about how I wish we could have done our honeymoon differently and wanting a do-over. I joked around about some tropical paradise.
But we have our son, so I didn”t think we would be taking any vacations.
”Your parents agreed to keep our son for us to have another honeymoon. I think your mom”s looking forward to all the cuddles. My mom will be there to help out. And we get our do-over honeymoon. But be warned, I completely plan to knock you up again and have you pregnant by the time we come home.”
”Maybe you should open your Christmas gift.” I nod to the place where I put his present. Since our son is lying in my lap, he grabs it and opens it.
It takes a minute for things to register, but his eyes go wide as he looks up at me with sizzling heat in his eyes.
”There”s just something so sexy about seeing the Romano mafia princess pregnant with my baby.”