“I’m sure.” She cups my face, making me look at her. “I’m not saying this is going to be easy. We’ve got a lot of damage to heal from, a lot of trust to rebuild. But I want to try. I want us to be a real family.”
“A real family,” I echo, the words foreign but right. “Okay. Then we do this right. Complete transparency from here on out. No more secrets, no more games. You want to know about the business? I’ll tell you. You want to be involved in decisions? You’re involved. You want your own money, your own independence? It’s yours.”
“Just like that?” She sounds skeptical.
“Just like that.” I mean it. “You’re not my prisoner anymore, Gigi. You’re my wife. My partner. The mother of my child. That means we’re equals in this.”
She’s quiet for a long moment, processing. “What about your world? The violence, the danger—how do we keep our baby safe from that?”
“I’ll scale back.” The decision sounds right as I say it out loud. “With the alliance, Viktor can take on more of the day-to-day operations. I’ll stay involved in strategy and in the legitimate businesses we’ve been building, but the street-level stuff? The violence?” I shake my head. “I’m done with it.”
Gigi’s mouth drops open as if she can’t believe it. “Can-can you do that? Just…walk away?”
“I’m not walking away entirely. I’m just shifting my focus.” I run my hand through her hair, needing the contact. “Marco usedto tell me that real power wasn’t about how much damage you could do. It was about creating something that lasted. I didn’t understand what he meant then. But now? With you and our baby? I get it.”
“He would have liked knowing about the baby,” Gigi says softly.
“Yeah. He would have.” The grief is still there and probably always will be. But it’s softer now, mixed with gratitude that Marco’s death led me to this moment, to this woman, to this future. “He would have been a great uncle.”
We fall into silence again, but it’s comfortable this time. Peaceful. The kind of quiet that comes from being with someone who understands you completely.
“Luca?” Gigi’s voice is hesitant. “There’s something I want.”
“Tell me.” I’ll give her anything. Everything. “Whatever it is, if it’s in my power to give you, it’s yours,” I promise, drawing her closer to me, relishing the feel of her body against mine.
She bites her lip. “I want to see Katie.” The words come out in a rush. “I want my best friend back. It’s been ages since I’ve talked to her and I miss her badly.”
“You’ll see her.” The decision is easy. “As soon as we’re home from the hospital, I’ll call her myself.”
Gigi’s eyes go wide. “Really?”
“Really.” I press another kiss to her forehead. “You shouldn’t have to lose your friends because of me. If Katie wants to see you, if she’s willing to forgive, or at least try to understand, then I’m not going to stand in the way of that.”
“She might hate you,” Gigi warns. “She wasn’t thrilled about this marriage thing when I told her about it.”
“She should hate me. I’d hate me too if I were her.” I shrug. “But if she makes you happy, if having her in your life means you smile more, then I’ll deal with whatever anger she throws my way.”
“I love you,” Gigi whispers. “Have I told you that enough today?”
“Never enough.” I hold her closer. “But you can spend the rest of our lives making up for it.”
“The rest of our lives,” she repeats, smiling. “I like the sound of that.”
“Good. Because you’re stuck with me now, Giuliana Marchetti. You and our baby both.”
She laughs, the sound bright and beautiful and everything I never knew I needed. “I can think of worse fates.”
“Yeah?” I’m grinning like an idiot, but I can’t help it. “Name one.”
“Being married to that werewolf billionaire from the book I was reading,” she teases, her eyes dancing with mirth.
I groan. “Don’t remind me. That writing was a crime against literature.”
“But it woke you up,” she points out.
“True.” I press another kiss to her lips, soft and sweet. “I’ll forgive the terrible prose in light of the excellent results.”
We spend the rest of the evening talking about everything and nothing. Baby names and nursery colors and whether we wantto know the sex or be surprised. How involved her father will be, what role Viktor and Danny will play, that she doesn’t want Dimitri near our family. The logistics of running an empire while raising a child.
