Page 150 of Righteous Enforcer
Alessandro holds up his hand. "She risked her life for you. Took a bullet when she could have let you die. Even I can recognize what that means."
Alessandro approaches the foot of my bed. "It's clear she loves you, even if she did betray our family."
I swallow hard. "I never wanted to?—"
"I don't need your excuses, Eva. What's done is done." He looks directly into my eyes, and I force myself not to flinch under his scrutiny. “But if you ever betray this family again, if you ever hurt my brother, I won't hesitate to kill you myself."
I nod.
“For Adriano's sake, I'll give you one more chance."
"Alessandro…" Adriano starts.
"Don't make me regret this," Alessandro says, his eyes still locked with mine. "Prove to me that my brother's faith in you isn't misplaced."
“I will. I promise.”
Alessandro gestures toward the door. "I think there's someone who's been desperate to see you."
The door opens wider, and my heart nearly bursts when Mirabella appears, clutching her stuffed unicorn to her chest. Her eyes widen when she spots me, and for a second she freezes in place.
"Mommy?"
"Hi, baby. Come here."
She breaks into a run, unicorn falling to the floor as she scrambles onto the bed. Adriano helps her up, guiding her to be careful of my injuries, but I don't care about pain right now. All I care about is holding my daughter.
"Mommy, you’re back!" She wraps her small arms around my neck. "Daddy said you were sleeping 'cause you got hurt."
I hold her like I never plan to let her go. "I'm okay now. I missed you so much."
"The bad man took you away."
"The bad man is gone now," Adriano says, sitting on the edge of the bed. "He can't hurt any of us ever again."
I look up to find Alessandro watching us, a strange expression on his usually stoic face. He meets my eyes and gives me a single nod before slipping out of the room.
Mirabella settles against my side, chattering about everything I've missed, while Adriano's hand finds mine. We're together. Truly together.
“We’re together now,” Mirabella says, looping an arm around Adriano’s neck and the other around mine and pulling us closer.
"Yes, Princess. We're a family now."
A family. After all these years of fear and loneliness, we've finally found our way home.
EPILOGUE
Eva - Three Months Later
I trace the pink scar along my hairline, barely visible now beneath my hair.
The physical wounds have healed, but some nights, I still wake gasping, Ivan's face looming over me, the cold press of metal against my temple.
Those nights, Adriano holds me until the shaking stops. Sometimes he's already awake, fighting demons of his own. We're broken in complementary ways, jagged edges fitting together like puzzle pieces.
"Mommy, look!" Mirabella twirls across our bedroom in her new fairy dress, wings fluttering behind her. “I’m a real fairy.”
“You’re the most beautiful fairy of them all.”
