Epilogue #2
In stark contrast to that life, toys are playfully scattered across these hardwood floors.
A blown glass vase overflowing with wildflowers graces the dining table, replenished each week by Xavier after he returns from our friend’s nearly completed homes.
And nearby, a stack of drying dishes rests by the kitchen sink.
This isn't just a house; it's a home brimming with life, a serene retreat where we’ve found peace.
“I'm so happy, Courtney.” The confession lodges in my throat. “I didn’t know it was possible.”
She fights back tears as she gently strokes my face. “Then my prayers have been answered.”
Once she leaves, taking a steaming cup of tea with her, I turn off the lights and check every lock and window.
Even after all this time, it’s something I still haven’t been able to quit.
I climb the stairs cautiously to keep from disturbing Thomas, sneaking into the nursery to settle him for the night.
Bringing the monitor along, I leave the door slightly open and peek into Isabella’s room.
“Your Mamma is here with you, Iz,” Xavier says. “Talk to her. She can hear you.”
A framed photograph of Bellarosa and Caesar sits on her nightstand.
In this snapshot of time, Rosa is laughing at something her husband said, her red hair styled in a wild bun similar to the one Isabella is wearing now.
Xavier scoured the internet for months to track down a single photograph of them.
He said there was no way he would let her forget their faces.
Xavier turns, finding me watching them at the door. He smiles, gesturing for me to come in. I crawl onto Isabella’s bed, and she nestles into my side, closing her eyes. She will spend her whole life missing her mother, but she will never not know what it’s like to have one .
Given my childhood, I really thought this would be the worst outcome of my life. Motherhood felt like a burden in my home, something that filled me with dread. It wasn’t until I was deep into my marriage that I discovered there was something different. A different way to live.
And every day, I wake up glad to have found it.
Painted French doors bang against the breeze, sending warm air through our bedroom, dancing along my spine as Xavier’s hands trace the path of my back, pulling me in closer by my shoulders.
His eyes are closed as I gently glide my lips across his face, overwhelming him with love I can't quite express.
Heat lightning laces across the brightening sky as the sun kisses the horizon, spilling color onto the surface of the ocean. Cicadas drown out all else, serenading the fading night. The tang of salt lingers on our lips as I entwine my arms and legs around him.
Settled on his lap, my hips sway back and forth, reveling in the overwhelming fullness. Xavier gathers handfuls of my hair, craving this connection as intensely as I do.
I'm at my safest when he’s inside me.
After the life I’ve lived, that’s a miracle.
Although the effects of what I’ve been through haven’t faded, and nightmares regularly pull me from bed ready to fight, Xavier is always there, right beside me—nestled in our own personal paradise.
No guards hover outside the doors. No gun rests on the nightstand. No impending doom hangs over our heads. Xavier isn’t stepping into danger every time he leaves the house.
This past year of our lives has been spent appreciating the people we love, who saved us when we thought we were beyond redemption .
Through all of this, we dedicate our days to our children, rediscovering the innocence stripped from us through a love that is entirely unconditional.
Isabella’s laughter heals me. To see Thomas whine restlessly in someone’s arms, calming only when Xavier has drawn him to his chest, is something I’ve never seen before. He is learning life through his babies, and I get to watch it all.
For that, I can’t help but feel like I’m incredibly blessed.
Xavier’s breath warms the cavern between my breasts, his hands kneading the peaks to exquisite tenderness. He sweeps the hair from my face, smiling as he notices how overwhelmed I’ve become, lost in him and in everything we’ve lost and gained. “Why are you crying?”
I shake my head, unable to express it.
His face is flushed, glistening with sweat.
The flickering candles on the nightstand bathe his skin in a warm glow, their wax having dripped and pooled on the mahogany.
I rest one hand on the intricately carved bedpost that Dante gave us for Christmas while my other hand finds the back of his neck.
I feel his hands roam down, guiding my movements, slowly stretching me as he slides back in.
His eyes drift down to where his body joins mine, glazed with desire.
While he glides his tongue over my chest to take in a tender nipple, his fingers trace past my navel, dipping into my cleft.
He nips at the underside of my breast, growing more impassioned, his lips roaming to my arms, my shoulders, my throat.
Anywhere he can reach.
I smile, and his lips mirror mine, spreading warmth against my throat. Xavier grips my waist, laying me flat beneath him, pushing aside the tangled sheets that separate us.
His hair brushes against his wide shoulders, dark strands clinging to his neck. He has never looked sexier than when he’s unwound, desire threatening to overwhelm him .
As we edge oblivion, the tension bodies us, stripping him of any control he has.
We cry out, clinging to each other, merged by a force that transcends love. I can no longer separate his soul from mine.
When we lose ourselves in bliss, we do it together.
And the world needs to catch up to us.
Everything is hazy in the aftermath of that kind of passion. Xavier smiles against me as my hands roam over the broadness of his back, wanting to erase any residual hate that may still linger in those raised scars. His cheek heats my smooth skin, his breath echoing my own.
As if weights were dragging them down, my eyes close. I think it’s only been a few minutes when they open again, but Xavier is dressing by the foot of the bed, already wearing faded denim jeans. He stretches a white t-shirt over his head when he catches me staring. “I want to take you somewhere.”
“ Now ?”
He smirks when I glance at the baby monitor. “Courtney is rocking Thomas while we speak.”
I roll onto my side, sinking into the plush pillow. “But it’s so warm here .”
He crawls over me, tickling my neck with sweet, soft kisses. “The bed will be here when we get back. What I want to show you won’t be.”
When I toss the sheets aside, he grins, relishing the victory, and throws me a sundress that I had draped over a chair.
The special smile Courtney flashes at us as we tiptoe past the nursery door reminds me of a time when laughter was scarce. She’s witnessed it all—right from the beginning. She saw me convince myself that I hated this man. She saw me fall in love with him.
Xavier hands me a helmet and climbs onto the motorbike first. I settle behind him, pressing against his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist to brace for departure .
The sun hasn’t fully risen yet, still hovering on the horizon, but the clouds have begun to blush with color.
As I breathe in deeply, my eyes close, relishing the scent of us lingering on his skin, blending with the salt in the air.
When I stretch my arms, welcoming the warm breeze against them, I notice a smile touch his lips.
This freedom is so damn cathartic, something I only grasp when we are as alone in the world as we are now.
In this place, the darkness cannot find me.
My smiles won’t cease.
Enjoying himself just as much as I am, Xavier’s smile transforms into an uncontrollable grin once I’ve leaned forward, wrapping my arms under his while flexing my fingers over his contoured ridges, still stuck on what he just did to me in bed. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace I found the other day.”
“Tell me.”
“Don’t have to. We’re here.”
Countless rattan palms are lining the overgrown trail that Xavier leads me down.
In the early morning, yellow-beaked hornbills are perching on branches beside a destined mate they will cherish for life.
The deeper we venture, the greener it becomes, transforming into a dense rainforest. Trees flank our path, their branches reaching high above us.
“Careful,” Xavier says, grabbing my waist to steady me down a steep slope.
“I hear water.”
“Just wait.”
Just a few more steps, and the ground levels out. It’s then that Xavier gently parts a mass of twisting vines, allowing me to step onto the sand before him.
My mouth drops.
I’ve never seen so many colors. Orange. Yellow. Pink. Deep blue. The horizon stretches across everything it can reach. The sea. The green mountain ranges. The old fishing boats floating miles away from shore.
In this secluded cove, pebbles and gleaming shells line the seashore, reflecting all that is unspoiled around us.
But that sky … I finally grasp why Xavier pulled me out of bed for this. It’s nothing short of a sanctuary.
The beach stretches for miles—there isn’t a single soul in sight. I doubt anyone even knows it’s here.
“Xavier…”
Xavier wraps me in his embrace and presses my hand to his lips, bestowing a gentle kiss on my wedding ring. “Sharing life with you this far has been a gift. Every moment of it, Sophie.” He leans into my touch. “You save me… every damn day.”
As I turn to face him, Xavier’s fingers slip into my hair, each tender kiss on my temple building a smile on my face. He holds me close, shielding me from the chaos of the outside world while the waves dance at our feet in soothing swirls of foam.
My heart tightens.
Tears sting my eyes as I recall countless memories, never quite able to forget the trials we faced to reach this moment.
I see Xavier sitting by the window of his restaurant, trying to convince me that he was someone I could trust.
Kissing me in the middle of a hotel room while we fought like the crazed lovers we would soon become, failing to maintain the distance he knew would keep us both safe.
I see us in a rose garden beneath a full moon…
Moving into our first apartment… On a mountain, professing our love for one another as our world tilted off its axis at the precipice of change.
Like our lives, the memories go dark.
The images keep flooding in until I’m overwhelmed by the consequences of simply dreaming. Those moments linger, reminding me we’ve faced more trials than triumphs.
Through every obstacle, Xavier kept me alive .
When I couldn’t breathe on my own, he breathed for me.
In the depths of his suffering, he found a way. He always found a way. It was his hands that wrenched me from hell, that forced me onto a plane, that hurled me into a harbor.
Since we were children, he’s been right there… waiting to save me.
Xavier wipes my tears so gently. “Sophie.”
I’ve experienced immeasurable sadness. I’ve been on the brink of death more than anyone should ever have to face.
Only by knowing how far I sank can I say with absolute certainty that I’m lucky to be here—that this moment wouldn’t even exist without him.
When I finally muster the courage to speak, his gaze shifts, revealing the profound impact my words have on him.
“You brought me back to life.”
My husband closes his eyes, resting his head against mine. We’re battling the memories and those who vowed we’d never find happiness.
Look at us now.
“Cuore mio,” he whispers, his voice a deep, sultry caress. My heart.
“La mia vita,” I respond. My life.
And I mean it. I mean it with every ounce of my being.
Xavier’s lips fall into mine with a sharp, sudden exhale, cradling my face between his scarred hands.
Tension coils tightly in his shoulders, and with a desperation that engulfs us both, he deepens the kiss, parting my lips for more, releasing a guttural sound that echoes his relief to finally hold me this way and know it’s forever.
Forever .
As my eyes slowly pull apart, the soft glow of the sunrise embraces his face, bright light dancing in his mesmerizing eyes. Eyes as green as this paradise around us.
The air is filled with the leaves whispering above us .
When Xavier grins widely, his joy is infectious. As he steps back to remove his shirt, I stifle a giggle, failing; it rises within me when he teasingly lifts my sundress over my head.
This new playful energy between us crackles like electricity. We undress hastily, diving into the waves.
Our hands, drunk on happiness, find each other in the abyss. In this secluded part of the world, no one can hear our laughter as it spills over, nor witness how we bathe each other in love, compensating for so much lost time.
We’re as free as the birds soaring over our heads.
As he crushes his lips to mine, that is my one consistent thought.
Our dream come true.
We’re free .
The End