But I do. Because I trust her.
And I can’t fucking live without her.
“Yes,” she whispers finally. “With all my heart.”
A weight lifts from my chest. I press another kiss to the back of her hand, intertwine our fingers. “Then marry me.”
This time, I don’t ask.
Mia’s face lights up all at once. She looks so fucking beautiful like this—the mother of my children, the woman who stole my heart.
My future wife.
“Of course I’ll marry you.” Her voice quivers as she speaks. “Of course I’ll be your wife.”
“Not just my wife.” I draw closer, knocking our foreheads together. If Eli feels a little squished in this awkward family embrace, he doesn’t complain. “Be mine, Mia Winters. Belong to me, the same way I belong to you.”
Her lips find mine. We kiss briefly and innocently. A seal on our promise and nothing more. “I already am,” she says. “I’ve been yours since the day I met you, Yulian Lozhkin. Yours and no one else’s.”
We stay like that for a while, resting against each other. Just me, her, and our kids snuggled between us.
It dawns on me that this is it. What I’ve been searching for, without even knowing it. What I’ve been missing since that fateful night, when everything was ripped away from me.
Family.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “For taking a chance on me.”
Her eyes crinkle. “Thank you for parking like an ass.”
“Ouch.”
“Hey, I said thank you.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for towing my car?”
“It would be the polite thing to do.”
I shake my head.This girl.This brilliant, rebellious girl who turned my whole world upside down with one tow truck call.
If I had to go back, I’d block her car in every time.
“Hey.” Mia lifts her head. “I just realized.”
“What?”
“That we’re free.” Her voice colors with joy. “Brad’s gone. Prizrak’s gone. We don’t need to hide anymore.”
She’s right. For twenty years, my mission has been to get revenge. To annihilate Prizrak, make sure they’d never hurt anyone the way they hurt me again.
Now, my mission’s over.
“Then we won’t.” I brush Mia’s hair out of her face and savor the warmth of her skin under mine. “We’ll have the biggest wedding in New York.”
“The biggest in the world?”
“If that’s what you want.”
She shakes her head, still smiling. “All I want is you.” Her hand comes up to cover mine. “I don’t care about anything else.”
