Epilogue
Dante
Goose bumps break across Lucia’s skin when I brush her hair to one side. It tumbles in a soft wave over her shoulder, exposing the delicate column of her neck and a small constellation of freckles.
Before searching for it only six short weeks ago, I’d only seen that combination of freckles on a woman’s skin once before. The pattern on the neck of a woman who held me captive for five years matches a cluster of stars I traced on maps as a boy.
Every time I see it, I feel a strange sense of certainty that I’d been searching for her longer than either of us realized.
“I’ll be right outside if you need me, angelo,” I murmur, my voice low enough that only she hears me.
Lucia nods, though worry still peppers her features. We’ve become so dependent on each other the past six weeks that she hates stepping even a few feet away from the safety we’ve carved out of the chaos that should have destroyed us.
We were brutally betrayed, but we came out of the flames stronger than ever.
Lucia trusts me now. She knows I’d never risk something so sacred for anything less than our children.
Yes, I said our children.
As I walk out of a stuffy and impersonal meeting room, each step torture, my thoughts drift back to the way Lucia looked at me the first time we tucked in Camille as coparents.
Her voice trembled when she expressed shame about not recognizing us sooner.
She said it felt like she’d failed, that although it is understandable she didn’t look closely at Camille since she believed she had birthed a boy, it should have taken more than a beard and a costume for me to be unrecognizable.
She clearly forgets how much we both drank that night.
Our faces were also hidden behind masks—both literal and otherwise.
You don’t realize how anonymous you are until one magical night strips you of a cloak you never want to wear again.
Lucia also isn’t solely to blame. I’d wondered why the sparks died so fast when Anna pretended to be Lucia, but I never implemented steps to get answers as to why everything was so different.
I sensed something was off with Anna, but I believed her lies since I was incapable of imagining such cruelty.
I could have avoided months of pain if I had looked deeper into the loss of our connection, but when someone shows up at your door, claiming you fathered their child, you run your DNA through the system. You never think to compare the mother’s.
Carmela and Anna played me like a fucking fiddle, but I can’t change the past. I can only clean up the mess and strive not to make the same mistakes.
The cleanup after the truth came out was brutal and efficient. Carmela’s body will never be found, and Edoardo sealed his fate long before the day he took his final breath.
Even before he took his own life, too cowardly to face my brothers’ wrath after we discovered he hired the mole who infiltrated our security system, he was already the coward of the Cosa Nostra.
He left behind no legacy and no honor. His name isn’t even worth mentioning. It only comes up while discussing the one good thing he left behind: his son, Gabriele, the child he had with Anna.
Anna was forced to do Carmela’s dirty work the past four years because she, too, broke the rules that fateful night.
According to Carmela, Anna’s sin was far less consequential since she had seduced someone in the Cosa Nostra.
Her bait snagged a fish from the bottom of the pond, but for years, Carmela believed it was one step better than what Lucia had hooked.
She had no clue that one smile secured Lucia permanent access to the cream of the crop when it comes to mafia royalty.
It’s been a long six weeks unraveling the vault of lies we were told.
Edoardo, Anna, and Carmela didn’t solely center around Lucia and me.
They dragged the entire mafia realm into the web of deception, which featured a falsified marriage certificate, birth records, and illegitimate claims of ties to sanctions long voided.
I’m exhausted, but today will finally slot the final piece of the puzzle where it belongs. It’s a giant step toward a stable, loving life I was confident I was getting when I snuck into an unlocked storage room on Lucia’s heel.
Gabriele sits in the corner of the boardroom. His composure is wary, and his hands are folded in his lap as he braces for more bad news. It’s been one knock after another for the shy four-year-old over the past six weeks. He lost his mother, father, and grandmother on the same day.
He has no one left—no one but us.
Gabriele’s teeth rake his lower lip when Lucia kneels before him. Her movements are subtle. She’s mindful he might bolt if she breathes too loudly. He has a lot of the same frightened impulses Camille had when she first entered my life.
Today is the first time Lucia is seeing him in person. Even though he isn’t her biological son, the way she looks at him—with that fierce protectiveness her eyes have always held for Camille—displays a depth that proves you don’t need to be related by blood to be loved without fear of expectations.
After clearing my throat, I step forward, coming shoulder to shoulder with a man who is seconds from shaping my destiny. Henry Gottle Sr. is the boss of bosses. He’s stern when he needs to be, merciless when left no other option, but also compassionate.
His nodded approval for me to kill Anna without consequence occurred seconds before I took my shot.
His understanding that day means I’m still a part of the Cosa Nostra, but if he denies Lucia’s every wish this morning, I’ll once again be forced to take matters into my own hands.
There’s no rule I won’t break to love and protect Lucia how she deserves.
I owe her the world when she saved me from being the villain of our daughter’s story and made me the hero instead.
Camille’s eyes were far from the carnage since she had Lucia in her sights, and that is the sole reason I took my shot.
I return my focus to the conference room when Gabriele’s shakes vibrate the viewing glass separating the conference room from a child protection officer’s office.
Despite the government’s beliefs, Gabriele’s adoption was never going to be handled by family court.
The child in question has ties to a man who once belonged to our world.
His placement on the bottom rung of the ladder has no effect on the decision being made today.
Only two people are capable of swinging this verdict in my favor. One is standing next to me, watching my soulmate interact with the little boy she’ll always love. The other is doing everything he can not to fall in love with my wife-to-be on sight.
I wish him luck, because it’s not something I’ve ever been able to do, further proving I should have known there was more to my instant obsession with Lucia. She broke an almost five-year abstinence with one twirl around a pole.
The only other time I’ve been that immediately smitten was the night I believed I was with Anna.
I wet my lips to ensure my words come out crisp. “Even without him being hers by birth, she protects him like he is. She loves him. That’s enough for me to do everything in my power to make him a permanent part of our lives.”
Henry glances up at me, his expression surprisingly composed. “Blood—”
“Doesn’t make you family.” His jaw twitches.
He doesn’t appreciate my curt tone, and the goons who hover their hands over their guns announce this on his behalf.
I don’t back down, though. Lucia loves this little boy, and I love her enough to sacrifice any connections to make her dreams come true.
“From what I’ve heard, you know that better than anyone. ”
I have everything to lose, more than most, but the mountains ahead seem more like ant hills when Henry murmurs a short time later, “Very well.” He shifts to face my eldest brother, the don of our chapter. “I’ve reviewed everything. If there are no objections, I am happy to grant your request.”
Giovanni dips his chin in thanks. “There are no objections from us. We’re pleased for Gabriele to become a part of our family, if he’s happy to have us.”
They seal the deal with a handshake before Giovanni gives me the go-ahead to tell Lucia the news.
One look at my face tells her everything.
With a smile that would weaken any man, she turns back to Gabriele, her confidence the highest it’s ever been.
“Would you like to live with us, Gabriele?” she asks gently, knowing he’s been through more in the past six weeks than many adults face in a lifetime.
“We already have a room for you. It has lots of planes and transport toys. I think you’ll like it. ”
Gabriele hesitates. His worried gaze dances between Lucia and me as uncertainty marks his face.
His trust is fragile, painfully so, but I see the moment it shifts.
Lucia’s love is impossible to ignore. It burns bright enough to heat even the coldest corners of a grown man’s fear, so a child doesn’t stand a chance.
He knows he will be safe with her, but she isn’t the cause of his sudden change of heart.
It is Camille winding up the snow globe Lucia gifted her.
She spins the crank as far as it can go before she holds it out for him to take, aware who her gift was originally for.
Gabriele takes it, albeit hesitantly.
He’s so immediately captivated by the magical castle setting that when Camille holds out her hand for him, welcoming him into our family, he slips his hand into hers with only the smallest tremble.
Lucia traps her sob halfway out before it startles Gabriele when Camille holds out her other hand for her. Camille never hesitates to include Lucia in everything we do. She runs into her mother’s embrace as often as she does mine, her arms wrapping around her thigh with age-old familiarity.
They bonded long before they knew who they were to each other, so the transition from caregiver to parent was seamless and natural.
My nails dig into my palm when I recall how close I came to losing the chance to see Camille bond with her mother.
With Henry’s suspicions of abuse as high as mine, Carmela had to act fast. Her days were numbered, but instead of entering the ring with honor and respect, she came out swinging with a devious scheme.
It’s a known trait of adults who’ve yet to learn that the failures of a parent should never rest on the shoulders of their child.
Carmela blamed Lucia’s unexpected conception for her father’s gambling addiction that cost their family everything. When Mario succumbed to the pressure of his failures by turning his gun on himself, the loathing worsened.
Greed overtook everything she knew, and when her web of deception started unraveling, she continued to blame anyone but herself.
Her disdain ran so deep that she knew the quickest way to destroy Lucia for good was to kill her child—her real child, not the one she fabricated when funds dipped low.
If Camille had trusted Anna as the guards had since she was on the pre-approved visitors list, and drank the juice she gave, she wouldn’t be here now, coercing her brother out of his shell with a love someone so abused shouldn’t be able to give.
The juice was laced with far more sedatives than the candy Carmela had hoped would move her plan to exploit me forward sooner than later.
The only time the no-contact part of our custody ruling could be broken was if the child became unwell enough for hospitalization.
A child hospitalized while under the care of one parent would have warranted an instant shared-custody arrangement.
Carmela knew I’d never allow that to happen and assumed I’d pay to ensure it wouldn’t.
I had other plans, but since everything worked out how it should have, I’ll keep them to myself.
Carmela’s hate not only resulted in the loss of her only child, but it also lost her any claim to the Cosa Nostra. Her ties to Gabriele have been struck from the ledger, mimicking the verdict Lucia faced when Carmela found out about Mario’s affair, which had birthed a child outside their marriage.
“Co-come on, Daddy,” Camille murmurs, stealing me from my thoughts. As she leads Lucia and Gabriele out of the conference room, she glances back at me. “It-it’s time to go home.”
I breathe a little easier at how she says “home.” For a few fragile moments, that protective bubble almost burst when I stupidly gave permission for her executioner to enter the compound under the guise of a custody mediation hearing.
My father was greeting Henry Gottle Sr. in the foyer of our home when Anna offered to collect Camille from her room so Henry could officially meet her as he does all the children he makes a ruling about.
Neither Henry nor my father knew of her plan to poison Camille. That morning, everyone’s eyes were on Edoardo before they shifted to Carmela.
The way the top rung was used as a prop doubled the strength of the Carusos’ reign. The rules were adjusted to accommodate immediate retribution, and it also gave us free rein on a handful of bad practices we’d been trying to drive out of Sicily for years.
Buildings will be scarred with the grunt of vengeance for centuries to come.
“Th-thanks, Daddy,” Camille whispers when I step ahead of her to open the door.
Her walk out of her mute world is slow, but I know she’ll get there. Not only does she have my brothers and me ready to fight her every battle, but now she also has Lucia and Gabriele.
While Camille and Gabriele bond over the musical snow globe glinting in the morning sunlight, Lucia turns her gaze to me. Her eyes are full of life from her family together in one spot, and she marks the significance with three words I’ll burn the world to hear topple from her mouth on repeat.
“I love you.”
When I gather her hand in mine to kiss her knuckles, the restless pain I’ve carried for five years finally relents. It will never fully disappear. The nonexistent bump in Lucia’s midsection announces our family will be complete in a little over seven months, but my work is far from done.
I won’t stop moving mountains until the Cosa Nostra is worthy of all of us, which means not only will my children not be rated by their gender, but the love of my life won’t be either.