Page 138 of Till Death Do Us Part

“Four days ago.”

“The day you got out of jail.”

“He told me you were dead.” He pulled me to him so hard it was hard to take in air. “He dug a grave and put a marker on it with your name. He’d buried a box of fucking money.”

I didn’t try to pull away from him. I needed to be even closer. I wanted to melt into him. It was the first time I truly understood how someone would want to die in someone else’s arms.

He kissed the top of my head. “You wouldn’t have been alone. We would have shared that grave. Side by side. Someone excavated us, they wouldn’t be able to tell us apart. We’d be like we were from the beginning.”

I looked up at him, and he looked down at me.

“One,” he said.

“One,” I repeated.

“Roma Viviana Maggio. You belong to me. Felice Giovanni Maggio. Not even a thunderbolt, or death, will be able to separate us again.”

Epilogue

Roma

4 Years Later

“They who are in love never feel the cold,” I whispered, staring at my husband through the car window while snow pelted him. It stuck to his hair and lashes and black wool coat. He was walking toward me, hand in his pocket, the other hand holding a hot chocolate for me, a few of the workers from the bombolone place trudging behind him with boxes in their arms.

It was something Mamma used to say. She had a lot to say, I was realizing as I got older. Her little sayings and quotes and proverbs would come to me seemingly out of the blue, but like John, I knew she’d manifested herself in my life. She was always there with me, sending me the reminders when I needed them the most.

A smile came to my face. Felice narrowed his eyes. I started laughing, and he shook his head, opening the liftgate so the workers could put the boxes in the SUV. Our order had grown exponentially over the last several years.

After we got back from Argentina, I organized a sit down with Felice, myself, Corrina, Nonna Silvia, and Babbo. Felice and his family deserved to know the truth. Sal’s condition was hopeless, and even if Babbo could have helped him, Tommaso had ordered him not to. Sal had done something unforgivable in the eyes of his boss.

Laws in Felice’s world were different from ones our world upheld. Corrina and Nonna Silvia understood them. Felice did too. He knew Sal was having an affair with a woman who was off limits. They all did.

“At least Tommaso showed mercy on Sal,” Corrina had said, dabbing at her eyes. “He let him go naturally.”

Ever since, they attended all the family get togethers at Babbo’s house. Adding them to the mix, plus all the other in-laws and children…we needed a lot of bomboloni.

It was Christmas Eve, and we were headed to Babbo’s to stay until after the new year.

Felice closed the liftgate, handed over wads of cash to the workers, then opened the door to the SUV. The chill didn’t touch me. All I felt flood over me when he took his seat was warmth.

I was more in love with my husband than the day I’d met him in the flesh.

He leaned forward and turned the radio down. “Admit it.”

“Admit what?” I smiled at him again.

“What the fuck’s going on. You’ve had this faraway look in your eyes, real dreamy like, for days, and you keep smiling at me for no reason.”

“Real dreamy like?” I exploded with laughter.

He sighed, blowing hot air out of his nose. My carnivore was getting testy.

“Okay.” I lifted my hands. I dug in my purse and held the small, flat box with the photo down in it. “I found a new species of dinosaur. It’s half carnivore and half herbivore. An omnivore, but it’ll take time to know for sure which eating habits he or she will take.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not following, Dino.”

I pulled the box out and handed it to him.

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