Chapter 12 - A VOW IN THE DARK
The rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor was the first thing to break through the heavy void.
I forced my eyes open. The harsh white lights of a hospital ceiling greeted me. I tried to shift, but a sharp, localized pain flared in my side.
"Don't move," a rough, exhausted voice whispered instantly.
I turned my head. Dominic was sitting in a chair pulled flush against the hospital bed. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week. He was holding my hand in both of his, pressing his forehead against my knuckles. Tangled between his fingers was Elena's silver rosary—not as a relic of his past, but as a desperate prayer for my future.
"You're alive," Dominic choked out, his shoulders shaking as he kissed my hand repeatedly. "The bullet missed your lung by a fraction of an inch. You've been in surgery for hours."
"Vincenzo?" I rasped, my throat dry.
"Dealt with," Dominic said, his eyes flashing with a protective fire before softening completely. "It's over, Claire. The syndicate accepted my terms. The house is sold. We're free."
Tears pricked my eyes. "Mia?"
"Right here," a small voice chirped.
Mia popped up from the other side of the bed. She had been sitting on the floor, coloring on a clipboard. She beamed at me, her green eyes bright and devoid of the terror I had first seen in that hidden panic room.
She climbed onto the edge of the mattress, careful not to bump my side, and handed me the paper she had been working on.
It was a new drawing. This time, there were no scarred men or dark rooms. It was a drawing of a house with a yellow sun. Three stick figures stood holding hands. A tall man, a little girl in pink, and a woman in blue scrubs.
At the top, written in wobbly, childish letters, it said: My Family.
"I drew you, Mommy," Mia whispered, leaning in to kiss my cheek.
My heart swelled until I thought it might burst. I looked at Dominic, the ruthless mafia boss who had given up an empire to save a child he didn't know, and the man who had stayed by my side in the dark.
Dominic reached over, gently brushing my hair back from my forehead. He didn't ask me a question. He simply leaned down, pressing his lips to mine in a tender, lingering kiss that sealed our new reality.
"We're going to California," Dominic murmured against my lips. "Your mother’s medical transport leaves tomorrow. The estate is waiting for us. No more locked doors. No more secrets."
I smiled, my hand resting over his heart, feeling the strong, steady beat beneath his shirt. The digitalis was out of his system. The poison of his past was gone.
"I love you, Dominic," I whispered.
May you like
He smiled, a true, complete smile that finally reached his eyes. "I loved you the moment you dragged me out of that library, Claire Bennett. Now, rest. We have a lifetime to catch up on."
The sun rose over the Chicago skyline outside the hospital window, bright and unburdened. The Caruso mafia legacy was dead. But a family had survived.
