This visit was extra special because of our wedding plans and my birthday.
We’ll be flying back to LA together for the Easter break. I have another eighteen months to finish the program. Then I’d love to work for a gallery. But I have other dreams I want with this man.
He looks down at me and searches my eyes. “What are you thinking about?”
“Our future.”
His smile turns up a notch. “What do you see in this future of ours, Princesca?”
“Everything. I want everything with you. That includes the ten kids you said we’d have.” We have this running joke I don’t actually think is a joke. But I like it.
“That sounds like a great future.”
I reach up and touch his face. “Thank you for giving me my dream and being you. You are my happiness.”
“You are my happiness too, Emelia.” He presses his forehead to mine. I know he truly means that.
Our journey that led us to this moment. We’re exactly where we should be. We belong to each other.
I’m his, and he is mine.
Nothing is more perfect than that.
Massimo
I look from Tristan to Dominic sitting before me and rest my hands down on the table.
I have to reread the letter in my hands again just to process it in my head. Dominic brought it to me. It was left at the D’Agostinos, slipped under my office door.
It says:
Dear Massimo,
You do not know me. But I know you, and I feel compelled to contact you in light of the information I’ve recently discovered.
There was so much more to what happened seven months ago when the Syndicate was obliterated.
There were more people involved than who you think. So many more who were responsible for the deaths of our loved ones. So many got their hands dirty to end our fathers.
Riccardo Balesteri was just a pawn in a bigger game to eradicate enemies. I urge you not to stand alone but to reform the Syndicate and lead. Be a leader.
It is only with the strongest alliances that you will be able to hunt your enemies, or war will come.
Good luck.
A friend
Rage I’ve tried to calm fills me at the thought of more people involved in Pa’s death.
This letter answers questions I had on my mind.
I should have known that day when the bomb went off in the Syndicate building that more people could be involved. I should have known that more people must have been involved right from the time when we raised the alarm that Riccardo was involved in a plot to wipe out the Brotherhood and no one could find him nor Vlad. It didn’t make sense for that to happen given who the Syndicate was.
Now it’s clear as fucking day they had help.
I ball my fist and slam it down on the table.
“What are you going to do?” Tristan asks. “Reforming the Syndicate is not a bad idea, Massimo. They formed for a reason, and we have the next generation of leaders we can look to.”