I grin. “I will accept whatever punishment they choose as long as I get to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He looks at me with pure adoration in his gaze. “Ditto, sweetheart. No matter what happens from now, we are in this together.”
“Always,” I whisper before his lips descend.
Epilogue
Catarina – 4 years later
The baby monitor crackles a split second before an ear-piercing wail interrupts our sexy time.
“Goddamn it,” Massimo groans, thrusting his hips forward with more urgency as he fucks me from behind. “Sometimes I think our son is the devil. He’s got cockblocking down to a fine art form.”
“Massimo! Don’t say that!” I chastise as his fingers move to my clit and he rubs me hard. “Babies wake during the night when they’re hungry.”
“I’m only joking,” he says in between pants as he ruts into me at full speed. “Kind of.”
My arms strain from where they’re cuffed to the bed, and I see stars behind my blindfold when he pinches my clit. I detonate the same time he roars and spills inside me.
Pulling out, he quickly cleans me up before climbing off the bed as our five-month-old son cries for attention. We only just moved him into his own room, and he has woken more regularly this past week in some form of baby protest.
“Massimo!” I hiss. “Untie me now!”
He swats my ass. “Patience,mia regina. I’ll be back.”
I’m cursing him under my breath as the door opens, and I hear the soft pad of his feet as he leaves to retrieve our little Rocco.
Massimo still calls me his queen even though I was stripped of my status and title by The Commission after they learned of my betrayal.
Dario is now don of what was once the Philly Contis’ operation. He refused to do it at first out of loyalty to me. Until I explained I wanted it to happen. I was tired of all the shit, and my goals had changed. Eventually, I convinced him, and he has been the one in control ever since. He’s doing an amazing job, and the men respect him. We are still close, and we regularly get together with our kids.
Nic had twins three years ago. A boy and a girl, and she’s pregnant again now.
We adopted Renzo and Maria’s two sons and daughter three months after The Commission’s ruling. Their grandparents were too old to raise a then eleven-year-old, eight-year-old, and six-year-old. Especially when they were grieving their parents. Cassio, Armis, and Bella knew me, but Massimo was a stranger. It took them some time to settle, and we had plenty of small problems, but eventually they did.
My heart swells with pride and love when I think of them. They bring me so much joy, and Massimo is an amazing father. Cassio is fifteen now and already initiated. He looks up to Massimo, and I hope he will continue to do so as he grows into adulthood. Massimo bought him a motorcycle when he initiated, much to my consternation and concern. But I was overruled, and speed is their thing. The two of them regularly disappear for hours flying down back roads and giving me heart palpitations.
It will be Armis’s turn to initiate next year, and he is champing at the bit for it. Armis has a close bond with Gabe. He relates to his sensitive nature best and is helping him to navigate the world he lives in. Interestingly, Armis recently died his hair platinum blond like Fiero’s. No one knows what to think about it, but Fiero’s and Massimo’s first glimpse of it was priceless.
Cassio is the spitting image of Renzo while Bella is the one who most takes after him in personality. She is steadfast and full of inner strength with the biggest heart.
Bella loves to bake, and I’m teaching her all of Mom’s recipes. She can already make Natalia’s apple cake as good as I can. But she’s also a natural at the hand-to-hand combat Massimo started teaching the kids the moment they moved in.
Watching him training with them brought back memories of Renzo training me, and it was incredibly nostalgic. It was the key to their bonding with him and instrumental in working out their grief. The day Bella flipped Armis, the pride on Massimo’s face couldn’t be rivaled.
Raising Renzo’s kids and watching them blossom and grow went a long way toward helping me to reconcile what happened with him. In a lot of ways, it feels like I still have a part of him with me.
I don’t know what my life would be like without them.
Life as I knew it tilted on its axis in the best way.
Family is my priority, and work takes a back seat. I could never have predicted how happy it would make me.
Although I was permitted to continue running the street trade within the Big Apple, it was increasingly difficult to do it without my donna title. Gossip and rumors were rife among made men, and I lost a lot of respect. Truth be told, my heart just wasn’t in it any longer. I built my business to fuel my revenge. Once those dreams were exchanged for new ones, I didn’t care about much of it.
Massimo took over initially until he formally succeeded Bennett Mazzone as president of The Commission.
Fiero forced his father to retire shortly after the showdown that day at Commission HQ, backed by Don Mazzone who was sick of Roberto Maltese’s attitude and wanted him gone to pave the way for new blood. Fiero is a vast improvement on his father, and The Commission is more energized and dynamic these days. Massimo is currently working on plans to expand the board and add some other dons from different states.
