Epilogue
The VIP box at Monaco’s Circuit de Monaco was nothing like Lexy had imagined.
She had expected something cold and corporate—all glass walls and leather seats and the kind of hushed reverence that came with obscene ticket prices.
But Sienah had decorated it herself, apparently, and there were throw pillows on the couches and fresh flowers on every surface and a coffee station that would have made her husband nod in masculine approval.
Her husband.
How was it that they had been married for eight years, but at the same time, it felt like they were newlyweds, with her cheeks warming at the mere thought of Leonidas as her husband?
Lexy settled into her seat by the window, the Monaco sun pouring through the glass as the track below buzzed with pre-race energy.
Pit crews swarmed around their cars like ants attending to queens, and somewhere down there, Leonidas was doing his final checks, running through the systems she had designed with the same intensity he brought to everything.
She had time before the race started. Time to think. Time to reflect on everything that had brought them here.
The past three months had been eventful, to say the least.
Gary—the intern whose name Lydia had almost let slip during that terrible phone call—had completed his suspension just last week.
He was young, barely twenty-two, and had been so thoroughly manipulated by Lydia’s attention that he hadn’t even realized he was being used as a spy until Aivan’s security team had traced the breach back to his credentials.
He’d wept in Aivan’s office when confronted.
Actual tears, streaming down his face as he begged for forgiveness and swore he hadn’t known what Lydia was really after.
And he had wept even harder when he realized that all was not lost, and he would be given another opportunity to prove himself and make up for his mistake with community service.
Lexy herself had seen him yesterday, hunched over a diagnostic terminal with the focused intensity of someone determined to earn back every ounce of trust he’d lost. He’d looked up when she passed, and the gratitude in his eyes had been almost painful to witness.
Everyone deserved a chance at redemption.
Even Lydia.
Lexy’s heart ached as soon as the other woman’s name popped in her mind.
Last she heard, Leonidas’ former mistress had spent the past three months.
..partying. Champagne-soaked selfies all over her social media, and every time she was interviewed by the press, she would insist that she was fine and living her best life.
Lexy honestly wished she could believe that. But she didn’t. And so all she could do was pray. That someday, somehow, God would send someone to minister to Lydia. An angel in human form, maybe, someone who could break through the walls Lydia had built and help her find her way back to the light.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket at that moment, startling Lexy out of her thoughts, and she was even more startled when she saw her husband’s name flashing on the screen.
Huh?
He was supposed to be in final prep.
Why was he calling?
“Leon?” She pressed the phone to her ear, her heart already beating faster. “Is something—”
“My legal department caught something online.” His voice was brisk, businesslike, but there was an undercurrent to it that made her stomach tighten. “I wanted to warn you in advance. I don’t want you to be caught off guard, and I want you to remember how much I love you—”
“You’re starting to scare me,” she said with a nervous laugh.
“It’s about my exes.” A pause. “Just check your phone. Race is about to start, I have to go. Love you.”
He hung up before she could respond.
Lexy stared at her phone, her mind racing through possibilities. His exes? What exes? He’d never mentioned anyone before Lydia—
A notification popped up, and Lexy clicked on it without thinking.
LEONIDAS GAZIS’S SECRET PAST: THE TWO WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE HIS WIFE
Her heart stuttered.
She scrolled down, bracing herself for whatever painful revelation awaited—
And then she read the first line.
Sources close to the Greek billionaire have confirmed that before his marriage to mechanical engineer Lexina Aryanis, Gazis was romantically linked to two mysterious women known only as Cammy and Rose.
Lexy blinked.
Cammy.
Rose.
Why did those names sound familiar?
She kept reading, her confusion growing with every line.
Cammy, described by insiders as a British special forces operative with a signature leotard and a no-nonsense attitude, allegedly caught Gazis’s attention during a charity gala in London...
Wait.
Rose, meanwhile, is said to be an Italian fortune teller with a mysterious past and an affinity for soul-powered attacks...
A choked laugh escaped her when she realized how her normally super serious husband was pranking her with a fake article about his exes.
Who just happened to share the same characters from a particular video game.
And of course it was no coincidence that same video game was what had inspired Lexy when making up stories about her own fictional exes.
Oh, Leon!
Lexy was still laughing when Shayla arrived, the older woman’s dark hair swept up in an elegant twist, her eyes crinkling with warmth as she took in Lexy’s tear-streaked face.
“Should I be concerned?”
Lexy shook her head, wiping at her eyes. “My husband has the best sense of humor.”
“Oh. Um. Okay.”
“I’m serious!”
“I know. You don’t have to convince me. It’s like when I tell people that Adriano has the gentlest heart—”
It was Lexy’s turn to choke. Adriano. Gentle? When he was called a legal barracuda—
Shayla laughed. “See what I mean?”
Lexy was unable to reply, with the announcement system suddenly crackling to life, and both women jumped to their feet as the announcer’s voice boomed through the stadium.
“Ladies and gentlemen, two minutes until the start of today’s race. Please welcome our drivers to the starting grid...”
Lexy pressed her hands against the glass as the names were called, her heart pounding harder with each one.
“...and in position three, making his return to professional racing after an eight-year hiatus — Leonidas Gazis!”
****
Down at the track, in the moments before the race began, Leonidas sat in his car and let the familiar weight of it settle around him.
Eight years.
Eight years since he’d felt the vibration of an engine beneath him, the grip of the wheel in his hands, the particular electricity that came from knowing he was about to push himself to the very edge of human capability.
Aivan appeared at his window, dark eyes steady. “How are you feeling?”
“Ready.”
“The system?”
“Perfect.” And it was. Every calibration, every adjustment, every line of code his wife had written—all of it working in harmony to bridge the gap between what his body could do and what his mind already knew. “She’s a genius.”
“She is.” Aivan’s mouth quirked. “Though I suspect you didn’t need the technology to figure that out.”
Adriano appeared beside him, silver eyes glinting with amusement. “One more thing before you go.”
“What?”
“You asked about our investor. The one who insisted on mediation.”
Leonidas’s hands tightened on the wheel. He’d been wondering about that for months—the mysterious figure who had refused to let him sign away his marriage, who had forced him and Lexy into the proximity that had ultimately saved them both.
“He wanted me to tell you something.” Adriano leaned closer. “He said he’s already invested in you, Gazis. Your marriage. Your company. Your future.”
What the—
There was no time to ask questions, with his friends walking away as the lights began to count down.
The race itself was a blur.
Leonidas drove on instinct, his body and the machine moving as one, every turn and straightaway flowing together like music.
He felt the track beneath him, felt the tires gripping and releasing, felt the wind resistance and the engine’s song and the thousand tiny adjustments that separated champions from also-rans.
He didn’t think about the eight years he’d lost.
He didn’t think about Lydia or the photos or any of the darkness that had almost destroyed everything.
He thought about Lexy.
About her serious dark eyes and her terrible coffee and the way she’d looked at him that first night, eighteen years old and already so certain of who she was.
About the technology she’d designed for him before she even knew she loved him.
About the way she’d thrown herself into his arms on a Monaco street and said ‘I love you’ like it was the easiest thing in the world.
And as the checkered flag appeared, and he crossed the finish line in first place, he found himself thinking about God—
Ah.
A good-natured laugh slipped from Leonidas as he finally realized who it was that was responsible for all of this.
God.
The one who chose Lexy for him. The one who made him win now. And just like it was with Aivan and Adriano, God was now the most powerful investor in Leonidas and Lexy’s married life.
Thank You.
The End