Extended Epilogue
One Year Later
Dominik
I cradle Katya to my chest as I stand at the window of Daniella’s office in the dog sanctuary, rocking her softly as she breathes contentedly against me.
The day is bright, bathing the field in glorious yellow light as my wife paces up and down in front of twenty or so dogs, all of them sitting patiently as they cock their heads up at her.
She’s wearing her Daniella’s Doggy Sanctuary T-shirt, with the paw print on the back, and two of her staff stand off to the side, watching in rapt fascination as my wife holds the attention of the dogs.
As well as providing a loving home for the dogs, she teaches them discipline and helps them to unlearn any bad habits they might’ve picked up in their previous – sometimes abusive – lives.
I rock Katya up and down, whispering softly in her ear as her mother works, “She’s a genius with animals, little lady. I’m so happy she’s your mother. You have no idea how lucky you are… how lucky I am. I guess we’ll just have to keep showing her how grateful we are, eh?”
She makes a cooing noise in her sleep, blinking her eyes open and looking up at me with an expression that melts my heart.
I never understood that phrase before I had a child.
Melts my heart.
But that’s what it feels like every time she gazes up at me with her adoring eyes, prompting fresh and new protective impulses to rise up inside of me whenever I think about something threatening what Daniella and I have built.
I glance behind me to where Lucky sleeps beneath the desk, his paws resting under his head, his eyes closed in contentment as he breathes softly.
When Daniella first got this place up and running, Lucky was a little madman, running around the place to sniff every new dog as though he was making sure they were worthy to work with his mommy. But now he’s used to it, happy to play at being the king while the other dogs are eating their food.
Later, though, he’ll get back out there with them, wrestling and having the time of his life.
I return to the window, watching as Daniella calls the dogs names and, on cue, they dip their heads into their bowls and start eating. Once the final dog has started – she switches the order regularly so there’s no resentment – she turns and offers me one of her bright smiles, brighter even than the sun bathing the scene.
I smile back as the warmth of belonging moves through me, unable to believe that I could ever have a life different from this, different from all the joy we’ve built.
I remember how she smiled at me on our wedding day, walking down the aisle with Lucky at her side, the little soldier who’d volunteered for the job the moment we brought it up.
“I don’t know who’s going to walk me down the aisle,” Daniella had said, and then Lucky was leaping up and yapping as if crying out, me, me. And our decision was made for us.
I let my eyes move over the shape of her body, made so much more curvaceous and gorgeous after bringing Katya into this world. A tear pricked my eye when she suggested that we name our daughter after my mother, a sob creeping into my throat and choking me.
I’ve cried several times since I proposed to her but never unhinged tears, never desolate sobbing.
I’m not ashamed.
I’d challenge any man – Bratva or not – to live a life this filled with love and not shed a single tear of happiness.
Daniella’s smile gets wider, and she holds her hands to her chest in a heart shape, the same way she did on our wedding day.
I grin and gesture with Katya, as if to say, I’ve got my hands full right now, Dreamer.
She giggles, and even if the sound doesn’t reach me through the distance and glass, I hear it. It reverberates around my mind like music, the most beautiful sound in the world, telling me that for as long as I live I will have a family, a legacy, that I will be the luckiest man alive.
I love you, I mouth instead, and she mouths it back.
I lean down and kiss the top of Katya’s head, rocking her gently from side to side.
Extended Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Daniella
I race around the kitchen, trying to do a dozen things at once as the sound of my family’s happiness drifts over to me from the dining hall. We’ve left the doors open so the children and the doggies can run back and forth, which is a good thing because we’ve got a very full house this evening.
There’s Kesha and his wife and their three children, and then there’s mine and Dom’s beautiful sons and daughters.