Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Hello,” he finally answers.
“Where the fuck are you?” Julian screams into the phone.
“I’m sorry… I had no choice.”
“You fucking betrayed me! You let them in, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry,” Lucca repeats. “They have someone I love.”
“That’s no fucking excuse! You vowed to protect this family. You vowed to protect Elena with your fucking life! You took an oath, Lucca, a fucking oath.”
“Long before that, I vowed to protect someone else–” The line goes dead, and Julian throws his phone across the room. The device collides with the wall and shatters into pieces.
“That bastard is going to pay for this. I will kill him for betraying us, for endangering you.”
“It’s okay. You’ll be okay,” I whisper low into his ear, my voice trembling as I keep my hands pressed to his shoulder.
“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Julian shakes his head. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” His eyes scan over my face and then slowly drop down to the rest of my body.
“I’m fine. You’re the one who got shot.”
“It went straight through. Clean shot. I’ll be back to normal in a few days. I’m only worried about you,” Julian confesses, and for the first time since the night he took me, I believe him wholeheartedly.
Celeste appears next to us with clean towels and a first aid kit. I look up expecting Marie to be here too, but I don’t see her anywhere.
“Marie is waiting at the door for the doctor,” Celeste explains. “If it’s okay, I’ll go and wait with her.”
“Yes, go ahead. I’ve got this,” I tell her, and she sprints toward the door.
Using the towels she brought, I cover up the wound and apply as much pressure as I can. I glance over to where my father’s dead body is sprawled out on the floor.
“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Julian confesses, and I know what he is saying. He didn’t want me to kill my father. Part of me thinks maybe because he just wanted to do it himself while the other part thinks he might be worried about the guilt I may feel someday.
“I thought you wanted him dead?”
“I did, and I’m glad he is gone, but I didn’t want you to be the one to pull the trigger. I’ve never wanted you to have to kill someone, especially not someone you loved. I didn’t want you to carry that kind of guilt around.”
I think about his words and what I’ve done.
Maybe it’s because I’m in shock, but right at this moment, I don’t feel guilt. I don’t feel guilty about killing the man who sold me, treated me like cattle, and discarded me like trash in the very end. I don’t feel guilty about killing the man who was supposed to love me and instead cared about nothing but himself.
“The only thing I feel guilty about is not believing you sooner. Everything you said was true. He never loved me.” The truth weighs heavily on me. He never loved me.
“I love you.” Julian’s deep voice interrupts my thoughts, but it’s not his voice that has me hanging on by a single thread.
“You love me?”
“Yes, I love you, Elena. I should have told you sooner. I love you. I have for a long time, and I was a coward not to admit it before. I was convinced I could make myself fall out of love with you. I was so afraid of falling for you, of becoming vulnerable, that I didn’t realize I already was.” My heart soars to life in my chest.
Leaning down, I press a kiss to his lips.
“I love you too, so much, and I’ll never doubt you again. I’m your wife, and from now on, I’ll behave like it. I’ll be by your side, always.”
Always.
Epilogue
Elena
I stare down at my small rounding bump. I’m pregnant. I still can’t believe it. Not long after the shootout with my father did Julian and I discover we were having a baby. And every day, I stare down at my belly with wonderment, watching as it grows each day. It’s still shocking that Julian and I will be parents in six months. Me, the princess from the ivory tower who found freedom with her captor. Him, the mafia made man, that shows only strength and never weakness.
To imagine him with our children, wrapped tightly around their tiny fingers. It makes my giddy with excitement. I know he will be an amazing father, even if he doesn’t yet believe in himself.
“You’ve smoothed your hand down the front of your sundress ten times now. Is something wrong, beautiful?”
I shake my head. “No, nothing is wrong. I’m just not used to the bump or the way my body is changing. Somedays, I feel huge, and others I don’t feel like I’m pregnant at all.”
Julian crosses the space between us and wraps his arms around me. His hands come to rest gently on my belly, and my stomach flutters as if there are a thousand butterflies inside of it.