"How does he do that?" I asked, lifting Eva.
"Selective hearing. Gets it from his father."
"I don't have selective hearing."
"You absolutely do. You can hear a pin drop three rooms away if it's a threat, but completely miss me asking you to grab diapers from upstairs."
She had a point.
Eva settled against my shoulder, and I walked her around the nursery, bouncing gently.
"Shh, sweet girl. Daddy's got you."
Valentina appeared beside me with Ezio—awake now, looking around with that serious expression.
"Our family," she said softly, looking at all four of us in the nursery mirror. "Together. Safe. Home."
"Home," I agreed.
And meant it in every possible way.
This was home. Not the penthouse fortress. Not the safe houses. Not witness protection.
This small ranch house with the hand-painted nursery and the porch that needed fixing, and the kitchen where we fumbled through making bottles at three a.m.
This was home because they were here.
My wife. My children. My family.
The family I'd chosen over everything else.
The family that had saved me from the darkness.
"Thank you," I whispered.
Valentina looked up. "For what?"
"For loving me. For giving me this. For showing me I could be more than what I was raised to be."
"You showed yourself that. I just believed in you until you could believe in yourself." She rose on her toes and kissed me softly. "And I'll keep believing. Every single day. Forever."
"Forever," I echoed.
Eva yawned. Ezio's eyes were already drooping.
We settled them back in their bassinets and watched them drift off again.
Then we walked back to our bedroom together, hand in hand.
Tomorrow would bring more chaos. More exhaustion. More beautiful, overwhelming, perfect normalcy.
But tonight, we had peace.
And that was more than enough.
EPILOGUE
Valentina
