Chapter 18
Vivian
Life moved fast after that.
I adjusted to motherhood like it was always waiting for me.
The sleepless nights, the diapers, the late-night feedings—it was nothing compared to the ache I used to feel.
Alejandro was there for every moment: singing Matteo to sleep, fixing midnight bottles, holding me when I cried because the baby outgrew his first onesie.
On Sundays, he made breakfast and brought it to bed. Sometimes he read court cases out loud while I nursed the baby. It was ridiculous, and I loved every second.
He told me, one night, about his own mother. How she’d raised him alone in a country that never wanted her. How she’d made him promise to protect his family, no matter the cost.
“You’re my family now,” he said.
I pressed my palm to his chest, feeling the heartbeat under my hand.
“You’re mine,” I said.
We didn’t need more than that.
Alejandro took me back to the ancestral estate once, when Matteo was just old enough to recognize his own reflection in a spoon.
He walked me through the gardens, told stories of his childhood, and showed me the room where he first learned to read.
Then he handed me a folder, thick with photos and letters.
“My mother saved everything,” he said. “The good and the bad. I want you to know all of it.”
I read every word.
Some of it was dark, full of secrets and threats. But most of it was about hope—about rebuilding, about choosing love even when the world said not to.
I understood him better after that. I understood myself, too.
No one’s life is ever what it looks like on the outside.
But it can still be beautiful.
Ryan tried to contact me once from prison. I didn’t answer.
Sometimes I wondered if he ever really knew me, or if he just wanted the picture of a life he thought he deserved.
I stopped caring after a while.
The first time Matteo smiled at me—really smiled, with his whole face—I felt a shift.
Like maybe all the pain was worth it.
Maybe this was the reason for everything.
Alejandro asked if I ever regretted any of it.
“Not a single thing,” I said.
And I meant it.
Holy. Freaking. Heck.
After all the chaos, we found our peace.
And that was the best revenge of all.