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It’s like a knife to the chest, but I force a smile in return, waving back at her even as my chin wobbles with the effort of holding back my sobs.

I would walk into that farmhouse a hundred times over, endure a thousand hurts and horrors, if it meant making this moment happen again.

“Bye-bye, Bee,” I manage to get out. “I love you too. So, so much. Don’t you ever forget that, okay?”

She grins at me widely and nods. Then she’s turning back to her parents, chattering excitedly, already getting lost in the glow of their adoration.

Leo guides his family away, back to my cousins and their guards.

But just as I start to sag against Nico in relief and exhaustion, the no one leaves. With a sinking feeling in my gut, I realize that Seraphina’s homecoming was only part one.

The families have come for Nico.

My heart lodges in my throat as I glance up at him, taking in the stoic set of his jaw, the grim resignation in his eyes. He knows what’s coming. He’s prepared for it.

But I’m not. I’m not prepared at all.

Leo returns without Emma and Seraphina, his face a mask of barely contained fury. He stops a few feet away, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides.

“My daughter is clearly safe and well cared for,” he grits out. “And that’s the only fucking reason you’re still breathing, Barone.”

Nico says nothing but inclines his head in a slight nod. It only seems to enrage Leo further.

“But there needs to be a reckoning,” he snarls, taking a step forward. “You used a two year old to feed your own sick obsession. You stole my child to get your filthy hands on Katerina. And whatever you did after, it doesn’t erase what you did before.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cillian, Maksim, and Nikolai’s hands drift toward their jackets, toward the guns I know are holstered there.

Nico sees it too, but he doesn’t react. He just stands there, shoulders squared, accepting the condemnation and the threat of violence.

It’s like…it’s like he believes he deserves it, I realize with a jolt of horror. Like he’s already decided he’s not going to fight for himself, for us.

That breaks something in me. Before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m stepping forward, putting myself between Nico and the men who want to hurt him.

The whole yard goes still, a collective intake of breath. I can see the shock and horror on my cousins’ faces. Nico stiffens behind me.

“Katerina,” Nikolai says slowly, his voice strained. “What are you doing? Move away from him.”

I shake my head, planting my feet more firmly. “No,” I say, and my voice rings out clear and strong despite the hammering of my heart. “No, I won’t. Seraphina is alive because of this man. She’s safe, because of him.”

Leo makes a scoffing noise, but I barrel on before he can interrupt. “Russo would have sent her home in a box,” I tell him, watching the color drain from his face at the words. “He would have made sure you found her, broken and lifeless, so that you would blame each other and tear each other apart in your grief and your rage.”

I turn to face the others, my gaze sweeping over them, imploring. “But Nico stopped that. He saved her. Yes, he kidnapped her, but he did it to protect her.”

Nikolai takes a step forward, his hand outstretched. “Katya,” he says pleadingly. “Come here. Come away from him.”

But I just shake my head again, tears blurring my vision. “I can’t,” I whisper. “I won’t. I’m staying with him, Nikolai. I love him.”

Nico goes rigid behind me, and I hear his sharp intake of breath. Every eye in the yard is now fixed on me, wide with shock.

“Katya,” Maksim breathes, and there’s so much pain, so much horrified understanding in that single word. “What have you done?”

I meet his gaze head-on, unflinching. “What I had to,” I tell him simply. “What my heart demanded. Just like you did, cousin, when you found Aria.”

He flinches at that, but I still see the anger and hate.

So I turn to the one person who might understand. The one person who knows, better than anyone, the lengths a mother will go to for her child.

“Emma,” I say softly, holding her horrified and judgmental gaze. “You have Seraphina back because of Nico. She’s in your arms right now, safe and whole, because of him. If Russo had taken her, you never would have seen her again. She either would have returned to you as a corpse or he would have turned her into a weapon. Seraphina was never in any danger here. Nico was always going to return her to you.”