EPILOGUE
The ground shook beneath my feet.
Sicily frequently experienced seismic activity, but this had nothing to do with earthquakes…
“Stan? Are you listening to me?”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I’m listening, soru. I’m listening.”
“You did it, frate. Well done. Well. Done. I figured you’d forgive me for disturbing your honeymoon.”
“Kitty’s the one you need to ask forgiveness from.”
Rory chuckled. “Tell her I need to ask her about the red marks Lessie has on her head.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sure thing, soru.”
Rory didn’t trust the many doctors in our employ now that we had a physician assistant in the Famigghia.
To say she was a helicopter mom was a gross understatement.
“I can’t believe it,” I admitted then bit back a laugh when a notification sounded on my phone.
“You had to nose your way into this call, Luc,” Rory chirped once his face was on the screen.
“Hey! I’d have suggested we fly over if, you know, our territory didn’t depend on our presence.” His lips formed a pout. “I wish we could spend the summer together in Catania one year.”
“Let’s work on that,” Rory slipped in, which told me she wanted that as much as I did.
All three of us home.
All three of us back where we belonged with the families we’d made on our own as well as the ones we’d been born with.
“That sounds like a wicked idea.”
“If it doesn’t happen before Saverina turns sixteen, then we’ll celebrate her birthday there. How about that?”
I grinned. “Sounds perfect.”
“Rina will love that. She misses Sicily.” Luc beamed at me. “Fuck, well done, Stan. Rory forwarded me the email. You’ve done us proud, frate.”
“You really have,” Rory concurred.
“Does Kitty know about Evangeline?”
“No, shit, Luc,” I said dryly. “I told her at the start. She understands and knows that she is my soul mate. Just took me too long to figure out that Evangeline was a sister to me.”
Rory clucked her tongue. “Never figured my bruiser of a brother would be saying stuff like that to me without at least a quarter bottle of whiskey in him.”
“You learn what you’ve lost once it’s gone and you learn never to take it for granted, soru,” I told her softly as I stared at the landscape ahead.
“It makes sense,” Luc agreed. “You’re not one of those creeps who’s into the big age gaps. I never did understand the fascination. You were more protective of her than you were of Rory sometimes.”
“Never really forgot how we found her,” I rasped.
“No. Me either. That goddamn sweatshop.” Luc sighed. “I went to Alina’s restaurant last week.”
“Yeah?”
“She said to say hi.”
“Wonder if she’ll want to know about Vangelin,” I mused. “It’s too little, too late for Evangeline…”
“But no other mother will have to go through what she did. You prevented that from happening again, Stan. That’s on you. No one else. Now Vangelin is FDA-approved, it’ll save lives. You’ll save lives.”
It didn’t whitewash my sins but it was a start.
“How’s Catania?” Luciu inquired, clearly wanting to change the subject.
“Beautiful.”
“Is Kitty loving the estate?”
“She is. Not that we’ve explored much of it,” I admitted wryly.
“TMI, Stan.” Luc pshawed. “That’s our cue to go, Rory.”
“Before you do, there’s something you should know…”
“What is it?” was their simultaneous, wary retort.
I cleared my throat. “I made a breakthrough before we left for Sicily. On the counter-compound for Red. There’s still a long way to go, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Glowing, Rory expressed, “Thank you, Stan.”
I’d always known she hated the drug and its derivatives. Known that she detested how I’d sullied myself with them.
What she didn’t know was that I’d worked my team hard to take my hypothesis into testing. It had been too fast, but we didn’t have little things like regulations to stop us.
“If we start to use that formula instead of the original one, users will get the erection without the murderous intent.”
“That sounds positive,” Rory cheered.
“Just wanted you to know that it’s in the pipeline. We switch the product without the consumers ever knowing. Our dealers can trash their supply, and we’ll give them the newer compound for free so there’s no bad blood—“
“We’ll need our men to watch them do it. You just know some of those fuckers will try to skim off the top.”
“I’ll leave that to you, frate. Just wanted to let you know that we should be able to get a better hold on the situation.
“Anyway, I’m off. I want to tell Kitty the great news. I think she’ll let me off for waking her up from her afternoon nap this once.”
“We made it, frates, haven’t we?”
My matching smile graced the view ahead of me—the estate, in all its grandeur, our home.
Even the terrible memories I had of this place were losing their sting.
Every time the gates to the estate used to open, the memory of finding Patri’s crumpled body lying there flickered to life, but Rory had commissioned a side entrance so that those gates could be sealed shut.
For an eternity.
I’d only learned that when we’d arrived and had to use a different entrance.
Just like Patricia had foreseen…
That Sight of hers came through more often than Kitty’d like to admit.
“We have. I didn’t think we’d find people who’d get each of us so perfectly. I mean, Luc was dead-set on Jen from the start like the weirdo he is—”
“Hey! I resent that when you’re as bad as I am!”
“—and I knew you had Hunter, but you were so goddamn stubborn that I thought you’d let him loose out of sheer idiocy, soru, but… I’m as proud of you as you are of me.”
A soft laugh escaped her. “Doesn’t matter which road we took so long as we made it to our destination.”
I didn’t point out that her route had taken her a hell of a lot longer than mine. Mostly, I was grateful she’d stopped doing a great ostrich impression and had let Hunter in.
I had a nephew and niece now because of that.
And she was pregnant again.
As was Jen.
More family. More Valentinis.
The future of our line was assured for another generation, even if Luc still didn’t have a son, and for the first time in decades, that didn’t matter to me.
What counted wasn’t the lineage or the lore, but the love.
It was love that had saved my sanity.
That made me want to live and not coast.
Love that had stopped Rory from turning into more of a stone than she had a rep for.
And that had prevented Luciu from losing himself entirely to vengeance.
Jen, Hunter, and Kitty—they’d saved us more than we would ever be worthy of…
Hands slipped around my waist as Kitty embraced me from behind.
“My wife needs me,” I intoned imperiously. “I’ll speak to you later.”
With their knowing laughter ringing in my ears, I ended the call, then turned in Kitty’s embrace.
“Good nap?”
She pressed her forehead into my pec. “Yeah. Until Chance kicked me in the back and Adamo had a bad dream.”
“You shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night.”
At my chiding, she wrinkled her nose. “Millie, George, Lara, and my godkids were leaving. What did you expect me to do? Be in bed by eight?”
I smirked at her ‘bah.’ “That sounded Sicilian.”
“I think you’ll find it sounded Irish.”
My grin made an appearance as I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Guess who developed a drug that’s FDA-approved?”
Her sleepy eyes widened. “You heard back already?!”
“We did. Rory got the news a week early!” I hugged her tight, feeling the pressure at her abdomen where our third child lay.
Three years of marriage, that was how long it had taken to get her to Sicily.
After the twins had been born, I’d empathized with Matri and Patri having to deal with Rory and Luc at the same time.
Knowing that things would get crazy again when this one showed up, we’d come to Sicily for a breather. The honeymoon I’d wanted for years but that we’d repeatedly put off after Patricia’s health scare and Matri’s stays in rehab.
“I’m so proud of you, Stan,” she whispered, standing on tiptoe so she could press a kiss to my lips. “God, your head’s never going to fit through a door now. It’s already been tough since the first time you found out I was pregnant. We’ll have to get contractors in.”
I snickered. “That bad, am I, dream girl?”
“The worst,” she boasted, eyes filled with pride. “My husband. The biochemist. Ma will be crowing about this to her friends for months. Finally, a legit guy in her family she can brag about.”
I leaned down and rubbed the tip of my nose along hers. “Speaking of your ma crowing, I dealt with Neev’s little problem.”
“Ohhhh, you’re the best husband,” she declared.
But just as my lips were about to brush hers, a croaky growl sounded from inside: “Are we ever going on this damn picnic or what?”
“For goodness’ sake, Currau,” Matri chided as the whirring of Currau’s electric scooter suddenly sounded overloud. “Patience.”
“I could be dead tomorrow! I want my picnic with my boys!”
I heaved a sigh when Kitty cackled as twin voices chimed in with their great-great-uncle.
After the last heart attack, one Victor claimed was a miracle he’d survived, Currau had asked to return to Sicily before he passed. To come back to where the Valentinis had been forged, a road that he’d helped build, so that he could see the future in its rightful place—our boys.
“What’s this about a picnic?”
“It was the only way he agreed to finally give us our wedding gift.”
I arched a brow. “Which is? And why is it so late?”
“Because he’s your relative, Stan.” She hooted at my pout. “And is, generally, a pain in my ass.”
“Well, what’s his idea of a gift?”
“Three nights in the mountains at a five-star hotel. No calls. A private nurse he won’t terrorize into leaving. Matri agreed to take the kids and Ma’s promised to make them cottage pie. It’ll be you and me. No clothes. No co-sleeping…”
I moaned. “Sounds like heaven, àncilu.”
Her smile turned wicked. And all these years later, I still knew to be wary when that glint made an appearance in her eyes...
“I think we can make it a little more interesting than that, don’t you, meu maritu?”
And on that note, we close the books on the Valentini Family series.
Long live the House of Valentini!