Beautiful Trouble: A Dark Mafia Romance

“God, you’re the worst.”

“You love it.” She hugged me tight and I laughed, looking around the room.

Then saw Mom standing near the door.

I extracted myself from Cassie’s embrace. I took a step forward, unable to believe what I was seeing.

“Mom?”

Her smile was like a lighthouse. She looked good, healthy, glowing. She’d lost some weight, and her hair was longer than I remembered.

It’d been months since I last saw her. I visited her in Vegas a few times a year, and she came to Sea Isle once or twice, but we were rarely in the same room. When we were, it was like coming home.

I looked at Darren. “You brought her here.”

“She’s your mother. I wanted to meet her.” He raised an eyebrow. “I can see where you get it from.”

“Get what?”

“Your spirit.”

I grinned, looked back at Mom, then ran to her.

I hugged her as tight as I could.

“Oh, I missed you,” she said softly, hugging me back. “Your new husband’s quite the man.”

“I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

“I bet you do.” She broke off the hug and looked into my eyes. There was a hint of concern. “I just hope you’re not making the same mistakes I made. I married a man like Darren, you know.”

I grinned and shook my head. “No, you really didn’t. Trust me, Mom, Darren’s nothing like Dad.”

She glanced over at him. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

I hugged her again. It was so familiar and comforting and god, I missed my mom so much.

“When did you get here?”

“Last night. He’s been hiding me away in some part of the house he said you never go in.”

“That doesn’t narrow it down much. It’s a big house.”

“You’re not kidding.” She put an arm around my shoulders. “You look good, sweetie. Best I’ve seen you in a long, long time.”

“You do too. How’s Vegas?”

“Oh, you know, it’s okay. I met a new man.”

“Really? Mom!”

“His name’s Roger. He’s older.” She blushed. “I want you to meet him.”

“I want to meet him too.”

We walked over and rejoined Cassie and Darren. We made quiet small talk surrounded by candles before being ushered into a more normal-sized dining room for some lunch and wine. Conversation flowed and I felt something constrict in my chest, something tight and small and hard, like a diamond forming in my heart.

Darren smiled at me, held my hand. Maybe that was love. Maybe it was family.

This was more than I ever imagined. A husband, a pregnant best friend, a mother who loved me.

I was what I was. The past always claws you back, baby. But the past didn’t define who I had to be moving forward.

I made that choice.

Nobody else.

“You okay?” Darren whispered.

“I’m perfect.”

Epilogue: Penny

One Month Later

For the first time in as long as I could remember, the Servant Manor wasn’t a hotbed of tension, fear, and anger.

It was kind of nice, actually.

Darren was happy. I don’t think I’d ever seen him happy before and didn’t even realize it until recently. Even as a kid, he’d always been kind of brooding, but now he was genuinely and utterly engaged with everything around him.

All thanks to Winter.

I loved having her around. She’d never replace Liv, but she made my days easier, both by being a friend and by softening some of Darren’s sharper edges.

Things weren’t perfect, of course. Anthony was a mess. He was still struggling with his guilt and all that, even though nobody was mad at him—okay, I was a little bit mad, but I still loved him—and I had a feeling he’d be dealing with everything for a long time. Erin pulled back into her own little world even deeper, and I had no clue what was going on with that. Mom didn’t talk much about what was going on, and even though she got along surprisingly well with Winter’s mother, she seemed a little distant and unhappy.

Which was probably normal for her, so maybe nothing changed there.

I wandered through the trees and along a narrow path that snaked its way through sticker bushes and trees. I walked this trail a thousand times over the years and it never failed to make me feel melancholy. I discovered it with Liv when we were little girls, and we called it our Secret Pathway. It led to various different things over the years: fairy kingdoms, Narnia, Hogwarts, buried treasure, dragons, and tons of other imaginary places. When we got older, we used to sneak down here and smoke clove cigarettes together and talk about boys and life and whatever we wanted.

I came to a small clearing with a low stone wall running through the middle. It was crumbling and must’ve been hundreds of years old—probably built by whoever first came here from England or whatever. It was ivy-draped and about ten feet long, and I used to sit on top with Liv for hours, kicking our feet and surveying our kingdom.