Page 48 of Defying Love

"New York in autumn," Dominic mused from across the room, his voice steady but laced with anticipation. "Central Park will be ours to explore, away from prying eyes and hidden daggers."

"And we'll walk the streets freely, Dom. No looking over our shoulders, no…"

"Exactly. Just Alexa and Dominic. Not the mafia prince. We'll be whoever we want to be.”

The walls, stripped bare, echoed the emptiness that tugged at the corners of his heart—a heart that beat with the fierce tempo of anticipation.

"Did we get everything?" Her voice was a delicate feather floating across the barren landscape of our soon-to-be former home.

"Every single thing that matters," I replied, words slicing the air with decisive certainty.

Together, we prowled from room to room, movements synchronized in silent communion. Drawers were pulled open, then closed with soft thuds, closets emptied of secrets and shadows. We found comfort in the gentle clink of keys and the soft zip of bags sealing away remnants of a life left behind.

"Turn off the lights," I murmured, the command wrapping around Alexa like a protective shroud. She obliged, fingertips grazing switches like a pianist's finale, plunging each room into darkness—one by one extinguishing our past.

"Ready?" I asked, though it wasn't a question. It was a call to arms.

"Ready," she affirmed, her voice steady, her resolve unbreakable.

We stepped out where the car waited, a chariot at the cusp of our new dawn, its engine purring like a beast eager for the hunt. I held the door open for her and closed it behind her.

I settled beside her and as we drove away, the skyline of sin receded into the rearview mirror, memories fading into the abyss. No more would the neon glow illuminate our nights; no longer would the underbelly of the city dictate our fate.

I pressed the accelerator, the car responding with a surge forward, as if eager to outrun the shadows. I didn’t speak of the challenges that awaited us; words were unnecessary. With every revolution of the wheels, we plunged further into our new life, the unknown no longer a specter of fear but an exhilarating enigma waiting to be unraveled.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Alexa

My heart drummed a frantic rhythm, gazing at the phone in my trembling hand.

"Hello?" The voice that had soothed countless scrapes and bruises of my youth crackled through the receiver, instantly dissolving the miles that lay between us.

"Mom!" My voice burst forth, a cascade of excitement washing away the heaviness that clung to my soul like the desert dust on the city's outskirts. "I got married!"

There was a pause on the line, a void where elation should have swirled, and my breath caught in my throat, heart pounding like the beat of a drum in sync with the distant sound of slot machines.

"Married?" her voice finally echoed back, tinged with a static of confusion that crackled through the wire. "Baby, can you—can you say that again?"

"I'm married, Mom," I repeated, the joy undimmed, conviction shining brighter than the boldest marquee. "I can't wait for you to meet him. It happened so fast, like a whirlwind. But it's real—I am married."

The silence on the other end of the line swelled, filled with the weight of words unspoken, heavy with the gravity of what had been revealed. My heart hung suspended in that moment, a pendulum poised between elation and fear.

"Married?" The single word fractured the stillness, her voice now a fragile thread, quivering with the impact of the unforeseen. Disbelief laced each letter, a shroud of shock enveloping the warmth that once colored our every conversation.

"Yes, Mom. Married," I reiterated, resolve wrapping around the confession like armor. "I know it's sudden, but when you meet him?—"

"This is… Are you sure?"

"More than I've ever been.”

"When are you planning to come visit?"

"Very soon. We'll be driving down in a couple of days. I want you to meet him, to see for yourself how happy he makes me." My voice was a crescendo of yearning, each word painting a picture of the reunion I envisioned—a canvas of smiles and embraces, the warmth of a long-missed connection reignited.

"And there's something else. I've been putting money aside, saving up." My fingers twisted into the hem of my shirt, a physical manifestation of my determination. "I want to help you pay off the house."

"Alexa…"

---