Epilogue

ONE YEAR LATER

CESARE

Rosalind wipes a spot of blood off my cheek before smoothing down the lapels of my suit jacket. She wants me looking pristine for what will be my official first day as Tommy's replacement.

It turned out that the scaly bastard had survived the helicopter crash and spent the next six months deep in hiding until he resurfaced to abduct Emberly.

Roman shot out his kneecaps and went charging in to save his woman. While my big brother was on his knees begging Emberly for forgiveness, I transported Tommy to the dungeons.

That was three months ago. In that time, Rosalind and I took out his sons and his most loyal lieutenants, leaving us in charge of New Jersey.

"Perfect," she says with a smile.

I push open the door, letting out a gust of frigid air. This is our coldest basement room with similar atmospheric controls funeral homes use to preserve dead bodies. We both walk inside to find Tommy sitting in his bubble.

It's a six-foot-tall perspex sphere with small portholes for food and the tube that delivers warm air. As usual, he faces the wall, so he won't look at his brother's corpse.

My birth father's body rests on a rack, staring sightlessly, frozen in the stunned moment of his death. I almost wish I hadn't filled him with bullets the night we went out to save Miranda. I wanted his suffering to last longer than a few hours.

Rosalind was satisfied with his ending. She says the months he spent recovering from the explosions and the years of pain following that were enough to fulfill her need for revenge.

Our cousins, Aria and Elania, embalmed Matty's body and applied just enough makeup to cover up his pallor, but after a year, he looks more like something dredged up from an ancient tomb.

"You're looking well, Uncle," I say to Tommy's back.

He isn't. The bastard is emaciated and covered in scars and burns similar to his brother's. Some of them came from the first explosion and the rest from the helicopter crash. The vertebrae of his spine are visible through skin resembling a transparent wound dressing, making him look a cadaver.

"Did you find her?" he croaks.

"You told me she was buried under Jane Doe," I say through clenched teeth. "But the headstone said Jane Hoe."

His shoulders sag, and he dips his head. "You should know what it's like to be a former addict. I wasn't in control."

"I would never degrade an innocent woman for pleasure," I snarl. "Neither would I steal another man's wife and then force her to get implants."

Tommy releases a flurry of dry coughs. Normally, I would rush to change the humidity of his bubble to keep him alive, but not today. I've extracted everything I need to take control of the Galliano empire and he's finally released the location of where he buried Mom.

I'm ready to move on.

Tommy had been blackmailing Mom since he spiked her drink, raped her with Matty, and mailed her the polaroids. At first, all he demanded was the occasional secret meeting or dinner. When I grew up looking less like my brothers and more like a Galliano, Tommy gave her a choice. Either she worked in one of his brothels or gave him information about Dad.

Mom didn't realize Tommy was working with Frederic Capello to take down our family until it was too late. After Dad died, Capello planned on murdering Benito, Roman, and me until Tommy got Mom to agree to swap her life for ours.

Rosalind and I have taken everything from that bastard. We killed his brother and his sons, destroyed his brothels and broke up his sex trafficking rings with the help of Cousin Leroi, Seraphine, and their team of vigilantes.

The last will and testament we drew up for Tommy named me as the sole beneficiary of his estate. Miranda and I already inherited everything Matty owned, but I declined my share. Millions of dollars sit in a trust fund for when she turns twenty-one.

"Now, will you let me die?" he rasps.

"That's what we agreed," I say with a smirk.

Tommy finally turns around to meet my gaze. Without his usual thick layers of makeup, he looks like a living corpse. His skin is stretched taut over sharp cheekbones, and he stares at me through eyes sunken deep into their sockets like twin pits of despair.

He flinches at the sight of Rosalind, one of the many women he wronged. While Tommy didn't abuse her directly, he knew exactly what his brother was doing. I'm proud to say the bastard now has gynophobia.

Rosalind once beat the shit out of him and even encouraged him to fight back. Even after getting surgery to fix his kneecaps, he couldn't land a punch.

But Rosalind isn't his personal boogie woman.

Neither is Emberly, who pistol whipped him in revenge for the time he abducted her and threatened my unborn nephew.

Rosalind isn't the woman who stood over him while he went cold turkey and waited for the drug to leave his system, only to give him enough to restart his addiction. She isn't the one who spent hours subjecting Tommy to degradation, humiliation, and psychological torture.

"Kill me, then," Tommy says.

"I only came to say goodbye and to let you know that your empire is in good hands. You will die, but I promised someone else the killing blow."

His eyes widen. "Who?"

I turn to meet Rosalind's smirk.

With a nod, she walks to the door, letting in the click-clack of heels. Keeping my gaze on Tommy, I savor the way his eyes bulge, his lips tremble, and his face contorts with terror as each approaching step echoes through the room like a countdown to his tortuous demise.

Dr. Cortese stops at my side, dressed in black and holding a small toolbox. "Hello, darling. Your little puppy is here to say goodnight."

I walk to the door, where Rosalind awaits, giving my former chemistry professor her privacy. The air fills with blood-curdling screams, making my veins thrum with satisfaction.

Tommy wouldn't admit to mistreating Mom while they were married, but we knew all about how he degraded Dr. Cortese. It's only fitting that he dies slowly at the hands of one of his victims.

When I step out into the hallway, Rosalind takes my hand and pulls me into a hug. My nostrils fill with a magnolia scent that I'll only ever associate with love.

Discovering the truth about why Mom left healed my lingering sense of betrayal, but my heart will forever carry the weight of the knowledge that she suffered in silence.

"Are you alright?" she murmurs.

I huff a laugh. "Why would I give a shit about Tommy?"

She draws back, her fiery hazel eyes meeting mine. Her brows arch as she studies my features for signs of denial. "Not about him. The funeral."

Exhale a long breath, trying to expel the impending sense of dread and guilt. A dark cloud hung over the family after Tommy told us the truth about Mom's supposed betrayal, and nobody has felt the same.

We ordered a beautiful memorial, but it was meaningless without knowing the location of her body. Tommy gave us the runaround, not remembering the location of her burial site or the name he put on the gravestone, so we only found her last week. Our twin cousins arranged for her remains to be transferred into a beautiful casket befitting our mother.

Rosalind places a hand over her heart. "We'll honor your mom the right way. With dignity, respect and love. That's what she deserves."

"All those years I spent furious with her rejection?—"

"Was for your protection. She wanted to shield you from those monsters," Rosalind says.

I nod, my throat thickening with regret. "If I'd tried harder?—"

"Tommaso had her completely under his control. Anything else you might have done would have ruined her sacrifice. She wanted you to live, just like I would do the same for Miranda."

Warmth fills my chest whenever I think of our little family. We moved out of the mansion a few days after rescuing Miranda from Gunther and installed ourselves in a townhouse within a five-minute walk from her academy.

Miranda still has her dorm room for the days where we have to leave town for business, but most of the time, she stays overnight at our new home. We're now discussing options for where she wants to study when we move to New Jersey.

"You're right," I say, the ache in my chest lightening. "Let's thank her for her sacrifice."

We walk hand in hand through the basement, passing the cell that's become Dr. Daniel's permanent prison. The Moirai's Chief Medical Officer was a fountain of information that allowed us to track down the younger assassins and academy students who were displaced after the explosion.

We arranged for those who were old enough to go to college, where they reside in a co-ed fraternity house. A few of the academy students joined Xero's organization and now live in the catacombs.

Most of the younger children have either returned to school or have moved into a group home that we sponsored. Xero and his people are tracking down the few members of the management team we didn't destroy in the explosion, who are now running for their lives.

After passing through the security system, we continue through the wine cellar, up the stairs, through the hallway, and exit through the front door into the sunny afternoon.

Rosalind squeezes my hand. "I can't wait for you to introduce me to your mom."

I smile. "She'll love you, just as much as I do."

She leans against my shoulder. "I love you, too."

As the black sheep and family fuck-up, I thought my life would be filled with an endless stream of failure and meaningless flings. I dreaded the day my brothers would cast me out for having Galliano blood. Now, I'm the don of the largest empire in New Jersey with the woman I love as my second-in-command.

Medical school was never for me. Neither was running away from secrets. I always felt like the black sheep because I was destined for something more than being the protected little brother.

With Rosalind at my side, I've finally reached my true potential. My heart is finally full.