32. Chloe
Seven months later…
“I can’t believe the cake turned out this well,” I told Dante as we walked past the dessert table at Eva’s baby shower.
“All I can say is the next one had better be a boy,” the Mafia Boss joked.
I smiled at the princess crown of a cake, commemorating the fact that Eva and Liam would soon be bringing another baby into the family. In the conservatory again, we enjoyed the pool, the food, and the company. Like we often did.
Life was good, and even though I struggled through moments of needing to look the other way when Franco and the others had to act in violence, I knew that they did so to keep us all safe.
“Franco wants to keep ours a surprise,” I reminded Dante.
He nodded, chuckling as he got a cupcake and took it to a table. I followed him there, smiling at everyone having fun.
These Mafia men worked hard, but they played hard too.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dante said as we sat. “But it’d even it out.”
“Liv and Sofia,” I said, counting Liam’s toddler and the sweet baby girl Nina gave birth to just a little earlier than expected.
He pointed at Caleb. “Then we’ve got Caleb.” He gestured at Eva snacking at another table. “They’ll have Rose soon.”
“And then…” I shrugged, smiling about the baby I carried in my belly. “Who knows?”
Franco and I married shortly after Sofia was born.
Wes was dead. I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t want to know any details. All I needed to know was that the main threat to my happiness and my son’s safety was gone.
He confessed to killing my father, and just a month after Franco proposed, shortly after Wes was removed, they learned that my mother suffered a heart attack and didn’t make it. I supposed a life of hatred could predispose someone to have a short lifespan, and I didn’t mourn her at all. How could I when she’d tried to have my son killed—twice?
Without any of those worries, I was completely free. I had family, a found family here, as well as the real one with Franco as my husband.
Finished with desserts, Dante sat back and looked out over the room with me. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.”
“Yeah?” I nodded. “I agree.”
“Just over a year ago, all I wanted to do was work and avoid a gold-digger who wanted to latch her claws into me.” He gestured at everyone in here. “Now, I’m married. I have a daughter. Daughter-in-law. My niece’s family is expanding. Yours is. And Caleb…” He sighed, grinning with complete and utter contentedness.
“I’ve fucking got it all, Chloe.”
“We do.” I sat back and marveled at the strong kicks of my baby, so active in my belly.
Caleb and Franco really hit it off. My son adjusted so well to everyone here, but the cutest thing of all was how Dante was such a grandfatherly figure to him. The Mafia Boss was like that with Olivia, too, and we constantly joked how the kids had the patriarch of the entire family wrapped around their little fingers.
He was right, though. We all faced our hardships to get to this day. Danger awaited still, but we’d overcome the threats that tested us all.
Life was good.
And I knew I truly had it all. I always would as long as I had Franco in my life.
As though he knew I was thinking about him, the former bad boy who stole my heart caught my eye. With that cocky smile of his that I loved so much, he winked.
Then and now, he was the other half of my soul. Together again, for good, we would be destined for a long life of nothing but happiness and love.