"Then you should have thought about that before you tried to destroy my life." I stand up. "You had a choice, Daddy. You could have loved me. You could have supported me. You could have put your family first."
"I was trying to protect you?—"
"No." The word comes out sharp. "You were trying to control me. And because you couldn't tell the difference, because you valued power over love, you lost everything."
"Savannah—"
"Romeo is a criminal." I cut him off. "He's dangerous. He's done terrible things. He's everything you warned me about." I pause. "But he will always put me and our child first. He will always choose us over everything else. He proved that when he was willing to walk away from his entire legacy for us."
"And I wasn't," Edgar says quietly.
"No. You weren't." I turn toward the door. "Goodbye, Daddy. I hope it was worth it."
"Savannah, wait?—"
But I'm already walking away, and I don't look back.
The guard escorts me out, and I walk through the facility with my head high. I don't cry. I don't break down.
I just walk out, because I’m not the girl any longer who needed her father's approval. The one who would sacrifice her own happiness to make him proud. I'm someone else now.
Someone much stronger.
Romeo is waiting for me outside, leaning against the car. He's still moving carefully—the injuries are healing, but they'renot fully healed—but he straightens when he sees me. "How did it go?"
"It's done." I walk into his arms, and he holds me carefully. "I told him he'll never know his grandchild. That I'm finished with him."
"How do you feel?"
I think about it for a moment—about the girl I was when I first arrived in New York—dutiful and desperate for approval. About everything that's happened since then.
"Free," I say finally. "I feel free."
He kisses the top of my head. "Good. You ready to go home?"
Home. The word still feels strange. Dante gave us a house as an early wedding gift. It’s huge, with plenty of room for a nursery, guests, an office for me to work on my research, a garden… everything we could possibly need.
It's beautiful… and it’s slowly starting to feel like home.
"Yes," I say softly. "Let's go home."
We drive north, and I watch the city disappear behind us, watch the buildings give way to trees, and the concrete to grass. I watch the sun setting over the Hudson River, painting everything in vibrant shades of color. Romeo's hand finds mine, and I look down at the emerald ring on my finger. At the symbol of everything we've fought for.
Romeo doesn’t make decisions for me any longer. We make decisions together. The generational feud between the Beauregards and the Ciresas is over, soon to be replaced by the vows Romeo and I will make to each other.
Thaddeus is dead. My father is in prison. Dante Ciresa has accepted me as part of the family.
And Romeo, and I, and our child are finally safe. He loves me, and I love him. And even if neither of us is perfect, every day we both try to be better, to love each other the way he and I both deserve.
It’s a little overwhelming, sometimes, being the focus of one person’s entire devotion. But it also feels good.
I’m all he’ll ever want. And he’s everything to me.
For as long as we both shall live.
EPILOGUE: SAVANNAH
The morning of my wedding, I woke up alone.
