We were on a well-deserved trip to Oregon to visit my brother and Malachi. Spring was bringing a new hope to our lives, but it would be years until Rome fully recovered.
He was plagued with nightmares and anxieties. Not about what had happened to him, but how it had affected the people he loved the most. We spent most nights wrapped in each other's arms, fighting off the demons that tormented us both.
My nightmares that had started while Rome was away still popped up from time to time. I had wanted to keep them private from Rome, as his trauma was significantly more complex, but with how much time we spent with each other, it was impossible.
“What’s that about?” He asked as he cradled my body in his arms the first time he witnessed one of my nightmares. It had woken him from a dead sleep, and I could see the anxiety in his eyes as he tried to wake fully.
I tried to brush off the comment, but it didn’t work. Eventually, I told him about the nightmares, the grief, and the pain I had suffered when I thought he was gone. He comforted me the best he could, and then promptly made me a therapy session and a couples session for both of us.
“I’m not taking any chances when it comes to you,” he had explained after I argued against him making medical choices for me. “I can’t lose you. I refuse to. I need help, but so do you, and so do we. What happened to us is insane, Bec. What Andi did, what she tried to take from us, is not something we can work through on our own.”
“I don’t want to talk to some shrink about my problems,” I had argued.
Rome shrugged, “I know you don’t want to, but you need to. Do it for me? Just once?”
I, of course, agreed. I mean, the man had been held captive because of the people in my life. The least I could do was attend one therapy session. One appointment turned into a bi-weekly appointment.
Apparently, I had more to work through than just Andi’s actions. I guess a lifetime of neglect from your father does quitea bit of fucking you up as a person. I had a feeling my therapist and I were slowly going to become better and better friends.
She also had her work cut out for her. But I was feeling optimistic, for the first time in a while. I had Rome, his family, my brother, my friends… and I had my job. It wasn’t a decision I came to lightly, but having Rome back gave me clarity.
If I were to leave Bly Enterprises, it would be because of my own choices. Not because of my dad, or because of Andi. The company was transforming, and I was working on replacing the board. I hadn’t expected them to vote me into the position, but after the truth of my dad’s involvement came out, they had all voted to approve me. When my dad’s schemes came to light, he turned himself in. He had nothing left. No money, no business, and no family. He would now spend the next ten years behind bars.
Andi was a different story. She was currently in a mental hospital. Amherst Insane Asylum would be her home for the foreseeable future. Rome was right; she wasn’t mentally all there. She had a cluster A personality disorder, though the doctors weren’t sure exactly what just yet. From what they did know, she had hyperfixated on avenging the perceived wrong against her family. When I took over the company and her goal had been realized, she floundered. I hadn’t seen it, but she was sinking into her own reality.
In came Rome. She had attached herself to him, giving herself a new conquest based on her perceived mutual attraction.
With the right help and medication, she would be okay. But I would never be able to forgive her. She broke Rome… but I would spend the rest of my life helping him put the pieces back together.
Rome had shaved the beard off fairly quickly, but he had kept his hair longer. He could tuck it behind his ears now, and it hadstarted to curl the longer it got. I enjoyed looping my fingers through the curls as we lay together.
Malachi sat next to Rome on the blanket we had laid out in Malachi’s backyard. It was a cold day in Oregon, the sky overcast, and the weather overall gloomy. I wasn’t sure how my brother lived here, but if it made him happy, who was I to judge?
“Doesn’t he look just like me?” Rome mused as he rocked Malachi’s son in his arms.
“He looks like my wife, not like you, you idiot,” Malachi mused.
Rome and Malachi’s friendship was slowly being rebuilt. The two were incredibly close, but Rome was still working through his guilt. He was making progress, but it would be a long process.
Malachi called every other day to check in. There were days when Rome didn’t want to talk, but he didn’t want to fall back into old behaviors, so now he would sit on the phone as Malachi talked about his day. Malachi wasn’t a talker, hated it from what I could tell, but he did it for Rome.
When you truly loved a person, you did the hard things to make their lives a little easier.
Rome looked up at me. I was sitting on a deck chair that overlooked the yard. “Sweetheart, tell him his kid looks like me. If I hadn’t lived on the other side of the country when he was conceived I would have been convinced he was mine.”
I rolled my eyes, “Just because he has black hair and dark eyes does not mean he looks like you.”
Rome pouted, “I was kidnapped by your crazy assistant; the least you could do is back me up.”
I shot him an icy glare, and Malachi choked back a laugh, “You’ve done it now, man.”
Rome looked between me and Malachi, horror dawning. He handed the baby back to Malachi and stood with his handsraised in surrender. “It was a joke, I promise. You never have to agree with me.”
I stood as well, my glare leveled at him. He backed away slowly as I advanced and finally all-out chased him. He laughed as he jogged, and I couldn't help but laugh as well. Though I was in a full-on sprint and barely keeping up with him. He turned quickly, a grin on his face, and his arm caught me around my waist.
I squealed as we fell onto the wet grass, where Rome proceeded to tickle my sides and I laughed underneath him.
“I’m soaked,” I said through laughs, “Stop it! Rome! I mean it!”
He laughed but obliged, dropping down onto the grass, laying next to me. He took my hand in his own and lightly played with my fingers. “It was all worth it, you know? To get here.”
I turned to him. His gaze was locked onto the sky, those dark eyes of his swirling, but that light I loved so much was ever-present. “What was worth it? The stuff with Andi?”
He nodded, “That, and everything else. Joining the Army, being a Ranger with Malachi, everything that happened with Malachi, working for you, that ridiculous fake relationship of ours, even being taken by Andi. All of it. It was worth it.Youwere worth it. I would do it all again if it meant I got to be here with you.”
“I love you, Rome,” I said with a smile.
He turned to me, his eyes sparkling and the wrinkles at the corner pronounced as he smiled. “I love you, Bec.”
