She sprints from the room, and comes back a few minutes later.
“Help is on the way,” she tells me, as she skirts around Sophia, Damien and Adrian, around the blood on the floor.
“What happened?” she asks in confusion. “Are we safe? Should we run?”
“We’re safe now,” Luca tells her. “There’s no reason to run. Not anymore.”
I hold his hand as we wait, and Alessa sits with us. A thought occurs to me and I turn to her.
“How did you know to look for us here?” I ask. “No one knew of that tunnel. No one except Adrian and Luca, I think.”
Alessa’s face is pale.
“If I tell you, you’ll think I’m crazy,” she answers hesitantly. I wait for her to continue, which she does with a sigh.
“It was rose petals,” she tells me. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I was cleaning your rooms and I saw rose petals on the floor, blowing down the hall. I followed them, and they led me here. But when I ran back to call for help, they were gone.”
She stares at me, her face pale.
“What’s happening?”
Goosebumps form on my arms as I look at Melina’s crypt, rising from the ground and sealed in stone. Luca and I look at each, and there is confusion in his eyes.
But he doesn’t know about the roses I saw myself… the rose that gave me hope, and the roses on the path. The roses that I thought I’d imagined in my grief.
Melina’s roses.
I look back at Alessa. “I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. “I think that sometimes, there are just things that we don’t understand.”
And sometimes the things that we don’t understand, they understand more than we know. Perhaps a mother, even one who is dead and gone, knew that her son needed help and she found a way to bring it to him.
The thought gives me chills.
Luca’s hand is warm and I hold it until help arrives, until my goosebumps have gone away, until they wheel us out on stretchers to help and safety.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Luca
“I don’t want it,” Christoph insists, staring out the windows toward the sea. “I’m not a Minaldi. I don’t deserve it.”
“You’re my brother,” I tell him firmly. “You didn’t know what Damien was doing. You didn’t know any of it. You’re a Minaldi in every way that counts. Please. Trust me when I tell you that I don’t want anything to change.”
“How can you trust me?” Christoph asks hesitantly, turning to stare at me. “After all of the betrayal in our family, how can you trust that I knew nothing? That I don’t even now plot against you?”
“Are you plotting against me?” I ask calmly, staring into my brother’s innocent eyes.
“No,” he says clearly. “I’m not. But how do you know?”
“Because I know you. I’ve known you since you were born and I used to carry you around Chessarae like a doll. You’ve always been the brother born of light, while Damien and I were born of darkness. I just didn’t know it of him. But I know you. And I know that every thought you have is true.”
Christoph’s face crumples and he hugs me tight. “You’re my brother,” he tells me. “In every way. I’m loyal to you. I don’t care who my true father was, I’ll never be a Leopoldo.”
“I know.”
“What will we do about the polizia?” Christoph asks. “They’ve been here five times since the other night. They want answers. We can’t hold them off very long.”
“Seeing as how I just came home from the hospital today, I’m sure they’ll be back tonight. But the answer is easy. Since Damien wanted so very much to be me, he can be me.”
Christoph lifts his eyebrows. “Come again?”
“I’m finally going to tell the polizia the truth. Only instead of explaining how it was me that Adrian used as a pawn in his violent crimes, I’ll simply explain that it was Damien. That they killed each other in a final fight. It will finally be over.”
“Will the polizia accept that as truth?” Christoph asks, his face uncertain.
“I believe they will,” I answer. “Damien was as involved in this as anyone. They will have no reason to doubt.”
Christoph nods and I step back. “I’ll talk more with you later. For now, I should find Eva. I want to make sure she’s resting.”
Christoph smiles and I stride from the room.
I find Eva exactly where she said she would be, resting in the atrium, waiting for me.
“Hi,” I say softly, staring down at her. Even after her ordeal, she’s beautiful. Her skin glows with her pregnancy, her eyes clear and bright.
“Hi,” she answers, patting the seat next to her. “Can you sit with me?”
“I’d sit with you forever, if you wanted,” I answer. She smiles.
“Words,” she sighs.
I sit.
“Actions,” I answer. She smiles again.
“I’m glad you’re home,” she tells me, snuggling into my shoulder. “I’m glad… about everything. But I’m so sorry about your brother. I’m so sorry that you’ve gone through what you have.”
“Don’t waste your energy on that,” I tell her, picking up her hand. “It’s over now. The doctors say the drugs have left my system. There won’t be any more episodes. I’m finally free of it, Eva. We’re free to be together, with our little family, without fear of what I might do. That’s all we should focus on now.”
I pull her close, gathering her into my chest. Her shoulders are so slight, even now when her belly is full with my child.
“Did you talk to the vet?” Worry hangs on her every word and I rub her back.
“Yes, this morning. Grendel is doing well from surgery and he’s going to be fine, Eva. You can stop worrying over him.”
She nods, settling against me, her body soft.
“Is everything all right with you and Christoph?” she asks quietly, her fingers laced with mine.
“Yes,” I answer. “Everything is fine.”
I mean more than just my relationship with Christoph and Eva knows it. She looks up at me.
“Will we stay here?” she asks hesitantly. “Chessarae has brought you so much pain. If you want to leave, I’ll go anywhere you’d like…so long as we’re together.”
I smile down at her, tucking a red tendril behind her ear. “I’m never leaving you again,” I tell her. “You can count on that. And as far as Chessarae… it’s the people who have brought me pain. Chessarae is just stone, Eva. We’ll air out its demons and all will be well. This is our home, and it will be Aria’s home, as well. We’ll make it a happy place.”
As I stare over Eva’s head, at the rolling green of the grounds and the gardens and stones and cliffs, I have no doubt that I’m right.
We’ll make it a happy place.
Wherever we are will be happy, as long as we’re together.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Eva
The halls are dark as I make my way from the kitchens, where I just ate three cookies and drank a glass of milk, to the atrium, where Luca is playing the piano while he waits for me.
I try not to shirk away from the shadows lurking in the halls. Adrian can’t hurt us anymore. And Damien is gone. We’re safe.
I repeat that as I walk around another shadow.
We’re safe. We’ve been safe for two weeks now, as we’ve settled back into normal life, as Luca has regained his strength from being restrained in ropes for so long. He’s resilient though, and he’s strong. To look at him today, you’d never know that he’d been held captive.
A minute ago, I’d received a text from him, something that made me smile since he doesn’t like to text.
Come to the atrium. I’m waiting for you.
When I walk in, he looks up and his fingers stop moving. The silence is tranquil as he smiles, and only then do I see a priest sitting on a chaise lounge next to Luca.
I’m confused as I smile. “Hello, father,” I greet him. Then I turn to Luca.
�
��What’s going on?”
He gets to his feet, slender and refined, and pulls me to him, staring into my eyes.
“Remember how you told me that you’d walk to Hell and back with me?”
I nod. “Of course.”
“And so you did. You walked to hell and back. And we’re still standing here today. Together. Only one thing could make my life more complete, Evangeline.”
He stares down at me, his dark and stormy eyes so intent, so focused. So beautiful. With his finger, he brushes my cheekbone, tucking my ever-errant hair behind my ear.
“Marry me,” he whispers into my ear, his voice warm as his lips graze my skin. “Marry me tonight.”
I stare up at him in shock. Over the past two weeks, we’ve not said a word about a wedding. We’ve simply focused on resting, on healing, on being together quietly and happily.
Marry me.
His face is open, vulnerable. He’s laying himself out there for me, offering himself to me. And I think about his life… how he’s so beautiful and kind. And how the people closest to him have betrayed him, have rejected him. His own mother when he was a child, then Adrian and Damien.
He’s used to devastation. He’s used to treachery. I have to make him accustomed to beauty and truth and loyalty.
“Yes,” I answer softly. Then more firmly. “Yes.”
Luca smiles radiantly as he pulls me into his arms and hugs me, my belly pushing between us. He laughs, palming it with a large, slender hand.
“Aria will be born a Minaldi,” he tells me. “All will be well and right. If you want a larger wedding after she’s born, you can have it. You can have whatever you want.”
I shake my head. “I don’t need a larger wedding. I don’t even want it. I just want you.”
The priest smiles at us, approaching quietly.
“Would you like to say your vows in here?”
Luca looks at me, raising an eyebrow. I glance at the windows and see the magnificent full moon hanging in the sky.
“Let’s do it outside, under the moon and stars. While you were gone, I used to stare at the windows, imagining that at the very least, we were staring at the same moon.”
Luca flinches at the memory, at the thought that he left me, even if it was against his will.
But he recovers and smiles. “Very well. We need some witnesses anyway.”
Witnesses? I don’t ask and soon enough I realize what he’s talking about as we make our way to the center of the English Maze. Statues of Greek gods and goddesses surround us in a circle, their stone faces looking down upon us.
I turn my back on the one in the middle, Hades, because he guards the secret entrance of Luca’s safe room…the room that Luca used to contain himself during episodes. As soon as possible, I want that room destroyed.
But instead of focusing on ugliness, I focus on happiness. Grendel followed us out and now he sits to the side on his haunches, fully recovered from his gunshot wound.
“Do you, Evangeline Micah Talbot, take this man, Luca Alexander Minaldi, to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, through sickness and health, through richer and poorer, for as long as you both shall live?”
The priest fades away, and all I can see is Luca.
The man standing before me is radiant and healthy and strong, and bathed in the moonlight. No more monsters lurk in his eyes, no more secrets. And I have no doubts.
“I do,” I say firmly, clearly.
Luca smiles.
The priest repeats the vows for him, which Luca utters quickly and concisely. He slides a beautiful ring onto my finger, the large emerald diamond sparkling as bright as the stars.
“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Luca pulls me to him, careful not to crush my belly, and kisses me thoroughly.
The priest eyes the statues around us wryly. “Ladies and gentlemen, gods and goddesses, may you be the first to receive Mr. and Mrs. Luca Minaldi.”
I giggle and Luca scoops me up, striding back to the house with long strides.
“Thank you, father,” he calls over his shoulder.
“I’ll just see myself back to the house,” the priest answers limply. I giggle again.
Luca doesn’t even falter as he carries my pregnant form up the grand staircase and down the hall to our suite. He deposits me carefully on the bed, then kneels in front of me, slowly unbuttoning my shirt.
When his fingers are finished moving, I’m naked.
Luca stares down at me, an expression of utter appreciation and love in his eyes.
“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful,” he tells me softly and his voice is so sincere as he runs his fingers over the curve of my belly, over the sides of my swollen breasts, up to my face. He cups it, pulling my mouth to his and then he consumes me.
He consumes me.
Every bit of me. Gently, thoroughly, lovingly.
Perfectly.
He touches me as only Luca can, as only he knows how to do.
When we have stilled, and our legs and arms are entwined and damp with sweat, he rests his head on my shoulder.
“Mrs. Minaldi,” he whispers. “You’re mine. Finally. When I was closed away in my mother’s crypt, I thought I’d never see you again. I knew it was for the best, that you should be safe, but it tore my heart to pieces. The mere thought of being apart was torture, but to actually experience it was the seventh ring of hell.”
As always, whenever I picture Luca tied up in that dark, damp place, my heart rolls in my chest.
“I hate imagining you there,” I tell him painfully, squeezing my eyes closed. “I hate it. I hate knowing that all along, you were on the property. I walked past that mausoleum every day, Luca. If only I’d listened to Grendel whimper. He knew, I think. He whined every day, every time we passed. I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know,” Luca answers firmly. “There’s no way you could’ve. Adrian chose the place for that very reason. He wanted to torture me with your close proximity, in a place he knew no one would think about or even remember. But don’t think of it. It’s over. It’s all over.”
He holds me tight and I close my eyes, imagining our future instead of remembering our past.
Our past is tragic and ugly, but our future is beautiful.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Luca
“I just need your signature on these final copies of your statement,” the detective tells me as he stands in front of my desk. As he speaks, his gaze roams over my things… over the heavy furniture, the thousands of books, the antiques that sit on the shelves.
“Of course,” I say politely, accepting the file folder from him and opening it, glancing at the paragraphs on the page.
The black and white words sum everything up, the reality that the police now believe. Damien had conspired against me, Damien had worked with Adrian and had helped cover up Adrian’s violent acts against the women in town. Then they had disagreed over money matters and had killed each other in a final conflict.
I sign my name boldly at the bottom in a scrawl. I don’t even feel guilty. Damien and Adrian put me through hell. My part in their treachery was never my own. It was theirs. I finally believe that I don’t deserve to pay for it.
“Will that be all?” I ask the detective. He nods silently.
“I hope so. Your family has certainly endured some rough times this year, with your mom’s death, and now Damien’s. I’m sure losing Adrian Leopoldo stung too.”
“The only thing that stings is their betrayal,” I tell him. “It seems that we can sometimes not trust those closest to us.”
The detective nods again. “That’s the truth. But I hope it will no longer be the truth for you. Good luck, Mr. Minaldi.”
He pauses at the door. “And the families of those girls…. They really appreciate the memorial funds you set up. That was generous of you.”
“It’s the least I could do,” I answer politely.
“It was
very generous,” he replies. “Have a good night, Mr. Minaldi.”
“Thank you. You as well.”
The detective leaves and I stare at the empty door frame.
It’s truly over. The case has been closed. Damien has been repaid for his betrayal by taking my place in Adrian’s crimes. It seems like poetic justice. He did so want to be me.
I start to pour a glass of scotch, but stop, watching the way the amber liquid sparkles in the crystal decanter. With one fluid movement, I throw the decanter out the balcony doors, into the gardens.
I’ll not drink it again. That vice nearly cost me my life.
I take a gulp of water instead, before I hurry down the hall to my wife.
My wife.
The words make me smile.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Eva
The pain threatens to rip me apart and I grab my knees, screaming, as sweat pours from my temples.
Luca sits at my head, holding my hand, even though I know I’m crushing his fingers. He doesn’t complain.
“You’re almost there,” he tells me softly. “You’re doing so well. You’re so strong.”
The doctor between my legs smiles up at us. “I see the head. Two more good pushes should do it.”
The nurse on the other side of Luca leans into my face. “Take a deep breath and then bear down with all of your might.”
I focus on the pain, on getting rid of the pain and I inhale as much as my tired lungs will allow before bellowing like a bull and pushing as hard as I can.
I feel a movement between my legs, a blessed relief from the ungodly pressure that had lingered there for hours, then hear a thin wail.
The doctor smiles again as he holds my dark-haired baby triumphantly in the air.
“I was wrong. It only took one good push.”
He lays the squirming infant on my chest and despite her wet, red skin and her puffy eyes, I know she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
“She’s beautiful,” Luca breathes and I smile.
“She looks like you.”
He shakes his head. “Not if she’s lucky.”
I chuckle and am filled with a tired joy. It took fifteen hours of labor, but Aria is finally here and I can hold her in my arms, safe and sound.
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