Page 127 of Accidental Alliance

He is alive.

For months, that has been what I return to when everything else around me feels unsteady. Elio’s hand moves slowly over my back in a soothing stroke that makes my eyes sting.

“Do you think he’ll like it here?” he asks.

The question is not really about the estate, we both know that. It is about this life and the family that will need to be stitched back together with bloodied hands and imperfect apologies. It is about whether Matteo can belong to a world I once prayed would never know his name.

“I think he’ll be overwhelmed at first,” I say honestly.

He hums softly in response.

I breathe quietly against his chest. “But… he is incredibly curious. And probably furious that I didn’t tell him sooner about you.”

He squeezes me gently. “We will make up for lost time once he is settled here.”

I lift my head enough to look at him.

Elio looks down at me. The softness in his eyes is no longer something he tries to hide.

That used to frighten me.

Sometimes, it still does, only because I’m afraid one day, I may lose it again. No love story should have this much blood under its fingernails. Yet despite that, his hand remains on my back and my arms remain wrapped tight around him.

The space between us, once a battlefield, has become something easier to swallow.

We are not healed, far from it, but we are slowly easing the pain of our pasts by changing our futures together and molding them into one we both control.

That is what these months have taught me.

Some wounds do not vanish. They grow around themselves and make space for other things. Trust, a stubborn and fickle thing, will always bloom when a promise without demand is given.

Elio’s mouth curves faintly. “I am excited for our future, Isabella.”

My chest squeezes. “Really? Even if it is going to take a long time to rebuild?”

He cups my face, his thumb gentle as it traces my jaw to my cheek. “As long as you allow me to remain by your side, I will be happy.”

I rise onto my toes and press a kiss to his lips. “Always.”

His eyes close at the small touch, a soft sigh leaving him. Sometimes, he still reacts as though this is an absolution he does not believe he deserves.

I hope one day, I can prove to him that he does.

I nuzzle back into Elio’s embrace and let myself relax there for another stolen moment. Outside, dawn begins to lighten the windows.

Pale gold slips over the estate grounds, touching the house that has finally stopped feeling haunted.

For years, I thought freedom meant disappearing and pushing away every piece of my history that made me a Russo.

Now with Elio’s heart beating beneath my cheek and my son safe, I know freedom can also mean staying.

There will always be danger in a life like ours, but this time when the world comes for us, I know without question that Elio will be by my side. Matteo will have a family that does not demand blind obedience in exchange for love or grow up believing loyalty gives anyone the right to chain him to their sins.

He will learn the truth slowly, with care, in pieces his heart is ready to hold onto.

He will know Amos Russo was powerful and flawed, loving and ruthless, a grandfather who would have adored him and a man whose choices cast shadows long after his death.

He will know the weight the Conti name once carried and how his father chose differently when it mattered.