Chapter Thirty-Four
ROME
“It’s what friends do,” Malachi explained with a shrug.
It was weird to be back with everyone I cared for. My family was here, Bec was here, and even Malachi. However, I wasn’t fully here. It felt like I was a bystander watching the events happen around me.
I turned to Bec. She was just as beautiful as I remembered. Her steel blue eyes were red-rimmed from crying, and I hated that I had done that to her. I cupped her cheek softly, using my thumb to wipe at the dampness left on her cheeks.
She smiled at the motion, “Do we need to get you back to the hospital or something?”
Bella snickered behind me, “We did kind of break him out.”
Bec looked between my sister and me confused, “Why in the world did you do that? You could have called, and I would have come down there.”
I shrugged, “They said the big board meeting was today and that you were gonna quit. I needed to stop that. It’s why I broke out of that stupid cage in the first place.”
Bec stared at me, her jaw dropped in shock. “Cage? You broke out of a cage that Andi had kept you in for months, to ensure I didn’t quit my job?”
I pondered the question before finally nodding. “I worked my ass off in front of those cameras to make sure the board approved you. I refuse to let it all go to waste.”
A surprised laugh fell past Bec’s lips, and she wrapped her arms around me. “I missed you, Cipriani.”
I kissed the top of her head. “Can we go home?” I whispered. It was taking everything out of me not to collapse in a fit of panic. I didn’t want to see Andi again, and even the sound of her pounding on Bec’s office door was enough to set me on edge.
Bec leaned back and searched my eyes. She must have found what she was looking for as she nodded slightly before speaking. “Of course.”
I turned, ready to leave, when a familiar ding echoed through the office floor. The board members filed out of the elevator, one by one, looking at our group, perplexed.
“We need to postpone,” Will began to instruct the board. I hadn’t fully processed that he was here until he spoke, my mind struggling more than I had realized.
Bec interrupted Will, moving to stand in front of the board. She glanced at me over her shoulder, “Give me one minute?”
I smiled softly and nodded. I would give her a lifetime if she let me.
Bec stood in the center of the executive floor.
It wasn’t her usual stage of a conference room or typical meeting, but she drew everyone’s attention.
The board members' focus was trained on her, but a few of them glanced my way, the shock evident.
I wondered how long it would be until I stopped seeing that reaction.
I could imagine their confusion. They probably assumed this would be a typical board meeting.
Instead, they had me risen from the dead like Jesus, Andi screaming and pounding on the office door, my whole family standing around, and William Sr. looking dejected and shocked at the same time. We were quite the sight to behold.
Bec cleared her throat before she spoke. “I understand we’re supposed to be meeting today, but as you can see, something’s come up,” she explained as she motioned my way. One of my sisters snickered at the comment.
Bec sighed, exasperated. “This meeting was ridiculous anyway. This whole situation was stupid. I mean… you were all going to vote on my future, while my world was crumbling. I spent the better part of the last year trying to prove to you I was something I’m not.
I’m not this happy, bubbly woman you all want me to be.
” Her voice began to rise, her theatrics growing.
The calm, controlled Bec was unraveling in front of our eyes.
Finally, she was showing her true fire in front of everyone.
“But why do I have to be?” She asked no one in particular.
“I was damned good at my job, and that still wasn't enough for you. I gave everything to this company, and what did it give me in return? A no-good father who shot my boyfriend?” A few gasped at the truth, and her dad looked down in shame. “An insane assistant who then kidnapped him? It’s absurd! All of it.”
She smoothed down her dress and turned to me, reaching her hand out, “Let’s go.”
I took it readily, moving to her side and looking down at the board that had ruled over her life. I had never been more proud of her than I was at that moment.
Bec looked at the board one last time, “Vote me in or don’t. I don’t care. Just know, I’m the only hope you ever had for this company, and you fucked it up.”
Ihadn’t expected it to be so painful to finally be home.
It wasn’t that being with my family was painful.
My family had survived it, grown closer while I was gone, and I couldn’t have been more proud of them…
even though I hated that they were ever put in that situation.
The pain was from knowing how much I had missed, because of someone else’s choices.
It was a cruel world where you could do your best to be a good person, to not cause harm to others, but still not be protected from the rest of the world. We are subject to the choices of the people around us.
“Hey,” Bec greeted, standing next to me on the curb. We had gotten home, and while my family, Will, and Malachi had filtered into the house happily… I was stuck.
I couldn’t move my feet from the curb. I wasn’t ready for what came next. I was free, I was home, but the healing had only just begun. I didn’t know yet how my time in captivity had changed me.
I looked down at Bec, who stood patiently by my side. I took her hand in my own, needing the connection. While being away from my family was difficult, being away from her was akin to death. She had become my world and was then stolen from my life in an instant.
“I missed you,” I whispered.
She smiled softly, “I missed you.”
“Such simple words for such a complex situation,” I mumbled.
Bec nodded, “We’ve never been good at simple.”
“I’m so sorry, Bec,” I explained. She turned to me, confusion marring her face. “I left you. I said I wouldn’t. I said you could count on me, and then I left.”
Bec shook her head and cradled my face in her hands, “You were taken. I know you wouldn’t have left me willingly. I’m the one who’s sorry, Rome. All of this happened because of me. If you hadn’t gotten involved in my world, in my chaos, you would have been safe.”
“No,” I argued, “I would have been half a man without you.”
Bec opened her mouth to argue. I assumed she was going to continue to blame herself, but what Bec’s father and Andi did was their fault alone.
“I love you,” I declared. “I would die by a thousand cuts if it meant I got a minute more with you. I would give up everything, anyone for you.”
“Rome,” she tried to interrupt, but the words that had been on the tip of my tongue came pouring out.
“Nothing about us is conventional or simple. I mean, this whole thing started as us pretending to date. Can we talk about how ridiculous that seems now? How trivial?” I asked.
“To think, our biggest problem at that time was the board. Like, who gives a fuck about them now? They’re just a part of your job…
but you and me?” I took her hands in mine as she stared at me with wide eyes.
“We’re so much bigger than that. I love you, Bec.
You are the reason I never had something serious before.
My heart was waiting for you. I don’t know what comes next…
I mean, I definitely need therapy.” She laughed lightly.
“You probably need it too. But I want to do it with you. I want forever with you.”
Bec smiled widely. “I love you, Rome. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you,” Her smile dimmed for a moment.
“The regret I felt thinking you were gone and had never heard those words from me. The pain… it was unbearable. I never want to live with those regrets again. Any regrets.” She sighed, her gaze downcast.
I framed her face with my hands, pulling us closer. We stood there, chest to chest, on the dark road, only the light of the streetlamps surrounding us. It was the dead of winter, both of our cheeks were red from the cold. But she was here. I was here.
“Tell me again?” I asked.
She raised a brow, “That I love you?”
I nodded.
She smiled again, “I love you, Rome Cipriani.”
“Again,” I teased.
Bec rolled her eyes, and I couldn’t believe just how much I had missed that.
“Are we going to do this all night?” She asked, her arms wrapping around my waist.
“I would spend a lifetime listening to you say that,” I mused. “And I would spend all night out here hearing you say it over and over again, but I’ll freeze my dick off if I do.”
Bec barked a laugh, “I really can never guess what you’re about to say. You know that?”
I smirked, “I like to keep you on your toes, sweetheart. Someone’s gotta.”
I didn’t want any more words. I just wanted her. I sealed my lips to hers and was finally home.