Page 109 of Mafia Shade's Reluctant Bride
I was no good at holding it in. I never have been.
“Yeah, buddy,” I whispered, scooping him into my arms and burying my face in his tiny shoulder. “Yeah, I am.”
I felt it the way he melted into me and the way his arms wrapped tight around my neck, not from fear this time but comfort and trust. He exhaled one long, shaky breath, and I could feel the tension draining out of his little body. For the first time since we bolted out of that hellhole, Matteo finally looked like a kid again. He was not a scared kid or survivor, just a boy in his dad’s arms, believing the world might be okay after all.
Maria wiped at her cheek quickly and failed miserably to pretend she wasn’t crying.
Luca was quiet for a while. Then, in the most Luca way possible, he ruined the moment.
“Wait, wait,” he looked between us, narrowing his eyes like a detective in a soap opera. “Are you saying the one-night stand you had was with Shade?”
Maria raised both brows as if she were daring him to keep going.
“You slept with the enemy?” he practically yelped.
“I didn’t know he was the enemy!” she snapped, hands flying in the air. “I wore a mask! It was a masquerade. How was I supposed to know the charming man I danced with all night and ended up with was actually your mortal enemy?”
I cleared my throat and started covering Matteo’s ears. “Hey, still here, father of the child, sitting right here.”
Luca burst out laughing. “Oh, this is priceless. This is the kind of thing I will tell at your wedding. With a slideshow.”
Maria groaned. “Aren’t you glad it worked out?”
“I mean, it’s a plot twist for the ages,” Luca grinned, eyes finally warm and letting go of the years of hate. “But yeah, I guess I am. You made him better.”
That hit me square in the chest. Not just because it was true, but because hearing it from Luca meant something. I knew what I’d done and who I’d been. And I knew Maria was the one who pulled me out of it, even when I tried to drag her in.
I pulled Matteo tighter against me, his small arms looping around my neck.
“I missed so much,” I whispered to Maria when Luca wandered off to give us space, probably pretending not to sniffle. “His first words. His first steps. His first everything.”
“But he’s here now,” she said softly. “And so are you.”
Matteo patted my face like I was a jungle gym.
“I have a daddy now,” he grinned.
My throat closed up. I kissed the side of his head and felt the way his little body leaned into mine so easily. It was like he knew and like he’d always known.
“Yeah,” I breathed out. “You do.”
And for the first time in a very, very long time, I felt like I belonged somewhere.
Not in darkness. But in light.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
MARIA
Happiness is earned, my father used to say, but there was no way I had earned all of this.
No way in hell.
I hadn’t imagined this moment in my wildest dreams, not the version of it that had come together so perfectly.
A year had passed since Enrico had been taken down, and everything had turned upside down and then back around again.
I still remember how broken I felt at the start, unsure of what the future held and of my place in it. But now, here I was, standing at the edge of a new life, a life that felt more real and more whole than anything I could have ever hoped for.
