Children of Ambition (Children of Vice 2)

I’m sorry for always pushing and hurting you. I can never say how grateful I am for everything you’ve always done for me…for all of us.”

I pulled back quickly and he swallowed slowly and just nodded. “Love you, too.”

“Good, so at my wedding, you’re going to be Gabriel’s best man. Start thinking of your speech now because I’m not helping you with that one.”

“Why in the hell would I do that?” He frowned, thoroughly unhappy with the idea.

Ignoring him, I let go and moved over to hug Wyatt tightly…then tighter…then even tighter…

“Ahh! Are you hugging me or are you strangling me?” he yelled, smacking my arms.

“You will always have me. You will always be a part of me. And I will always love you, unconditionally and forever. No distance or person can get between us,” I whispered, kissing the side of his face and pulling back, laughing as I added, “I would make you my maid of honor but Helen might kill me, so that means you’re stuck walking me down the aisle.”

“Of course, I am. Were you planning on walking down by yourself?” he snapped, peeling me off of him. His eyes glistened.

I knocked my forehead against his. “Don’t get all mopey when I leave.”

“Will you get on the damn plane already; it’s hot out here!” he said as he squeezed my hand tightly and then…let go.

Taking a step back from them, I smiled. “Next time you all see me, you’ll be bowing.”

They groaned and even Ethan rolled his eyes as I laughed, fighting the burning in my eyes.

“We’ll hold the wedding a soon as possible,” Gabriel’s voice came from behind me, and when I turned around to look at him, I realized I didn’t want to turn back to look back at them.

“Au Revoir,” I waved over my shoulder and then walked forward.

No longer Donatella of Chicago.

But Donatella of Monaco.

EPILOGUE

“This is the first verse of genesis. Holy art thou, chaos, chaos, eternity, all contradictions in terms!”

~ Aleister Crowley

GABRIEL

“Another reason I built that hotel,” I said, lifting the panel so she could look out the window. “Was so that you could see this.”

“What are you…?” Her voice trailed off as she looked out. We had taken off a little bit ago and she’d been quiet…too quiet. I didn’t want her to miss it. “I can still see it.”

“I told the pilots to fly as low as they could until you couldn’t see it anymore,” I told her, looking out as well to see the Obelisk in the distance, the only thing still so clear because of the light reflected in the glass. “In ancient Egypt, the Obelisk represented the mound from which a cry awoke creation and set life in motion and it also symbolized another cry, which would mark the end of life.”

She snickered to herself, leaning on the windowpane and watching until we were too far to see anything else and the plane began to rise. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. When she opened them again I saw a familiar look of determination.

“Amelia, tell her everything you know,” I said, rising from my chair. “I’ll be back.”

I walked to the front of our cabin and into the guard’s cabin. They all began to rise to their feet, but I shook my head. I noticed two who didn’t move. Sebastian stood in the aisle beside them.

“They gave us kids?” I frowned. The two teenagers were familiar.

“When do you think they’re going to ask us our ages instead of calling us kids?” The one on the right said as he clicked away on his video game again.

“I think we’re always going to be called kids,” the other yawned, tugging on his eye-mask and shrugging his shoulders as he relaxed into the chair.

“That’s going to get annoying,” the second replied and Sebastian looked at me as if I had some damn answer as to why they were on my plane. Last, I remembered seeing of either of them was when they were driving me and Donatella to the mansion.