Page 56 of Stealing His Christmas Present

Chapter 21

RETURNING THE TWINSto their mother was the right thing to do. Claudia should go back home.

The only small little detail was that if I showed up at the Casadeis’ house, they would kill me for sure.

Claudia would tell them what had happened, and maybe she didn’t even have to. They knew who I was, and they’d take me out, like they’d probably wanted to do years ago.

I glanced over my shoulder again, and a smile spread across my lips.

Claudia could’ve run away and saved herself, but she cared more about her niece and nephew than about herself. I hadn’t met many people who’d be willing to risk their own lives for someone else, not even family.

Claudia was nice, sweet, compassionate, and a good person. Seeing her with the twins made me feel a strange sensation in my chest.

A longing I didn’t even know I had.

I was never going to see Claudia holding our child.

A pang of hurt went through me at that thought, and I didn’t know why. I’d never even thought about it before or about having children, but seeing her like this just opened some sort of window inside of me.

Unlocked a part of me I hadn’t known existed.

I wanted to keep her with me and see what else she would help me discover about myself that I didn’t even know, but she’d already done more than enough.

She’d pulled me out of the darkness. She’d chased away the rage that I’d been carrying inside me for too long.

I had to let her go.

Forever.

She deserved to be happy.

I might have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but letting her go back where she belonged was never going to be one of them, no matter how much it hurt me.

When I pulled over in front of the gate that led to the Casadei residence, the guards were about to pull out their weapons.

“Lower the window for me,” Claudia said.

I did as she asked.

“It’s me! Let us through!” she yelled at the guards.

Confusion crossed their faces, but then they hurried to open the gate. As we passed through it, one of the guards was pressing his earpiece and probably announcing Claudia’s return.

I stopped the car in front of the house, and a group of people surrounded us. There was so much light everywhere, as if the house was a light bulb. A huge Christmas tree was not too far away from the front door, along with a few deer made out of colorful lights.

It was a surprise they’d done all that, considering I’d kidnapped Claudia right from under their noses. But maybe it was a tradition, or they didn’t want to stand out. Actually, with all these lights, no one would dare get close to the house because there were no shadows to hide in.

Claudia had been right.

Stella was here, her face tearstained and worried. The rest of Claudia’s family was here too, including Stella’s husband, and enough guards to form a small army.

“Claudia!” her mother screamed.

Someone opened the car door, and Stella cried out at the sight of the twins.

“It’s a Christmas miracle!” someone shouted.

They all surrounded Claudia as she got out of the car too.

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