Norwood looks like he's about to pass out. His hands grip the chair and he's lost all color. Suddenly, he looks old and frail to my eyes.
He doesn't scare me anymore. He's lost his power over me.
“How do you like my game, Senator?” I ask, keeping my voice sweet.
His eyes turn to mine, burning with hate and fear. “How?”
“My mother left them for me. I actually only found them when you destroyed my piano.” I smile, but it's feral and dangerous rather than kind. “In a way, you showed them to me. I never would have found them without you.”
His eyes narrow and I'm glad Dante is standing behind me with a gun on h
is hip.
“You're just like your mother,” he hisses.
“Good.” I stand up. “Mrs. Russo, as you can see, you have nothing that interests me anymore.”
She looks like I've slapped her across the face. I just put her down not once, but twice in the span of ten minutes.
“If you'll excuse us, Dante and I are going to go meet with a caterer for our wedding.” I gather my things. “Oh, and feel free to keep those photos. I have them all backed up and on the cloud for safe keeping.”
Mrs. Russo and Norwood just sit and stare at me.
Dante takes my hand and together we walk out of his mother's study. We walk down the hallway, following our footprints out to the bright sunshine world of snow and sparkle.
Outside the birds are singing. The world is bright.
Dante pulls me in for a kiss before we get in the car.
“You did good, Vesper,” he tells me.
And that makes my day absolutely perfect.
Epilogue
My daughter is six months old today.
Her name is Caroline after my mother and she is absolutely perfect. She has Dante's dark hair and my eyes. Her smile is his, though and that makes me love her even more.
She was born on a hot night in July. I barely made it to the hospital she was so impatient to enter the world. If I close my eyes, I can still see the perfectly happy smile of her father as he held her for the first time.
Our life is good. It's not perfect, but it makes me happy.
I run an organized crime syndicate using a mattress company to launder money by day, and by night, I am mother and wife. Dante is a mafia boss, making the underworld do his bidding and also the world's greatest father.
My aunt and uncle have retired. They love to watch the baby when they aren't busy traveling the world. They love their little granddaughter more than I thought possible. Family is everything. They make sure that my daughter wants for nothing.
Our business is growing. Combining the families has opened more business opportunities, both legal and legally gray, that we never could have expected. Business is booming. Our families are succeeding.
Mrs. Russo is nothing but polite. She takes many vacations away from us, especially around the holidays. We don't see much of her, and I am quite alright with that.
The darkness of my past is behind me. I no longer wake from nightmares. I no longer am afraid of the darkness when I am alone.
Senator Norwood is in prison. He is awaiting a murder trial for my mother.
Once the news broke that there were pictures of what he did to my mother and that the case was being reopened, his minions started to break. One by one, the people that once kept him out of jail came and confessed. His money no longer paid for their silence.
He had only purchased their loyalty for a short time. They had no reason to be loyal once the money stopped being enough.