“Mol,” Luca said. “Take Stacy and Willow and get out of here.” Molly opened her mouth to protest, but Luca held up a hand. “I know, but this is between him and us.” He looked at Molly seriously, and she nodded. “Thank you.”
Molly started out of the office, and Stacy was right behind her. Willow gave me a kiss before pulling herself from my arms, and a few seconds later, the three of them were gone. I shut the door to Dario’s office and turned around, and all of the Varasso brothers had converged on Dario. He wasn’t fighting anymore, only looking back up at us exhausted.
“I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say?” he grumbled.
Luca shook his head. “No.” He set the barrel of his gun to Dario’s head. “I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but you’re the last thing between us and the rest of our lives. We owe it to Angelo to make good by him. He may have been an abusive, cheating, son-of-a-bitch, but he was still our dad, and you murdered him for nothing.”
“I didn’t know,” Dario said.
“Well, now,” I responded, “you do.”
Not one of us flinched as we rained a series of bullets into Dario, mangling him beyond recognition. We stepped back and looked at him as a wave of relief washed over us.
Finally. It was done.
Epilogue
Willow
The tapping on my face might have alarmed me a year ago, but now it was welcome, if not a bit annoying. There was a murmur of noises adjoining the gentle slaps, but they were difficult to make out in my still half-asleep stupor. There was another flurry of taps before a smack collided against my skin and sent a sting across my cheek.
“Hey! Be nice to Mama!” I peeled open my eyes, and Alessandro was lifting Adrian from my chest. “We don’t hit Mama.”
I giggled at the sight. Alessandro was standing next to the bed dressed in a Kiss the Cook apron with Alexis at his side tugging at his pants and our three-month-old son, Adrian, in his arms. Unlike Alexis, who took after Alessandro, Adrian looked more like a little boy version of me—Ricky, for those looking to get technical.
“Good morning,” I grumbled. “Thanks for letting me sleep in.”
“Of course. It’s Mother’s Day, after all.” He handed Adrian back over and then lifted Alexis and set her next to me. “Here, snuggle Mommy. I’ll be right back.”
Adrian dribbled and did his best to claw at my shirt, and I knew he was probably ready for his breakfast. I lifted my shirt, tucked him against my breast, and breathed in the calming feeling of his suckling.
“Mama, what’s he doing?” Alexis asked.
I pet her brown curls. “He’s eating, sweet girl.”
She curled up her nose. “He wants Cheerios.”
I chuckled. “Maybe, but he can’t chew them yet.”
She tilted her head. “Can’t chew?”
I kissed her forehead. “Right.” I opened my other arm. Alexis tucked herself against me, and I smiled with my children cuddled against me.
Alessandro and I found out not long after things got sorted out with the Binachis that we were expecting another child. Turns out, going eight months having a strained relationship and then nearly dying, resulting in a long, intense night of passionate love-making, gets you a baby. Who knew?
“Mama. I wanna see Tonio,” Alexis murmured, poking her brother’s hand lovingly.
“We’ll see him later, baby. Remember? We’re gonna have a pool party.”
Alexis jumped up on the bed. “Pool party?”
It was as if I hadn’t told her about a thousand times yesterday in an attempt to keep her from misbehaving too much and in exchange for cleaning up her bedroom. “Yes, remember? It’s Mother’s Day, so we’re gonna go see Aunt Stacy, Aunt Molly, and Aunt Kelly.”
“Aunt Kelly!” Alexis clapped her hands.
It wasn’t surprising that she had bonded with Kelly the most, given that she was the one taking care of the kids while we were all cleaning up things with the Binachis. Once she had recovered from having Apollo, she insisted upon still having weekly visits with the kids, Ricky, and Sasha. They’d gotten pretty close in the six months that we were gone, and even though that was over a year ago, they’d only gotten closer in the time that passed.
The weekly visits became additionally helpful when two of the Varasso women got into the latter half of their pregnancies. The same day that Alessandro and I announced that we were expecting our second child, Gabriel and Stacy announced that they were expecting their first. Their shortened honeymoon was likely the cause of their baby, but whatever the case, Stacy and I were thrilled to be having kids at the same time, who would be the same age. Luca and Molly’s elder child, Anna, was the oldest of our children, followed by their younger child, Antonio. Marco and Kelly’s daughter, Amanda, was next in line, and then Alexis.