A Love Most Fatal (Morelli Family #1)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

NATE

Six Months Later

The Morellis are a family of a great many traditions, and they have begun to include my dear parents in all of the wholesome ones.

Claire and Vanessa both thought it would be a good idea to have my parents here for the holidays, and to that end, they’ve been staying in my old room since the week before Christmas. Keeping the criminal parts of everyone’s daily life hidden has been easier than I thought; at dinner, nobody talks about debt-collection, threats, or illegal shipments, and instead, they discuss hobbies, interests, work, and other completely personable things. It’s all been very friendly and normal, even if it may have seemed to them strange and out of character for Willa to get her siblings and husband new handguns as Christmas presents.

The feat of convincing my parents that nothing is amiss with my new in-laws has proved to be more difficult at the Morelli Family New Year’s Eve Party. No less than two hundred criminals (Irish, Italian, and Russian) gather in a hotel ballroom, dancing, drinking, and sharing hors d’oeuvres over conversations about business.

I’ve spent most of the evening following my parents around, directing any conversation steadfastly away from crime when they decide to chat up someone new—which is often because they really are exceptionally chatty. Now, they’re sitting at a table with Jenna and her girlfriend, and I can only hope they stay there for the rest of the evening. I’ve barely seen Vanessa, who has been making the expected rounds at the party, charming every guest she speaks to.

She can’t help it.

Business has been good since Cillian died. This cordial, even friendly, mix of criminals is a sign of the times—fewer enemies, and more shared power thanks to Vanessa, Maxim, and now Sean. The three youngest bosses in the city. Shipments stopped disappearing; those who were at Cillian’s beck and call were found and dealt with. And with Vanessa wearing her mom’s engagement ring, even The Mothers fell into an appeased peace.

I catch Vanessa’s eye across the ballroom, and she excuses herself to make her way to me. She’s beautiful, radiant in a deep purple satin dress with sparkling silver clips pinning her hair out of her face. Her mother’s red necklace sits around her neck.

I want to escape to an alcove of some sort and take the clothes off her immediately, but I am a man of class and decorum, so I settle for wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Husband,” she muses.

“Wife,” I say. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve been right here,” she says, but smirks. “I’ve missed you too, so do not even think about leaving my side for the rest of the night.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Artie and Angel breeze past with some other kids their age and younger, the boys with their button-up shirts untucked and short ties long forgotten. Angel wears the blue dress she wore at our wedding, and a warmth sits in my chest remembering the softness of that day.

Late summer, on the day Vanessa planned on marrying Maxim, I married her instead. My parents cried happy tears, as did we all. The Morellis, it turns out, are a sappy bunch. Ranger jumped and barked around our feet as we kissed, and our guests cheered. The whole day was like something out of a movie.

The single best choice I’ve ever made.

“Ness,” Willa singsongs as she approaches. Her hugely pregnant stomach bumps against Vanessa as she leans towards us both. “It’s time.”

“Already?” I ask, but when I look at my watch, sure enough, there’s only about thirty minutes until midnight.

“Give me five,” Vanessa says. A nervous energy buzzes off her as Willa walks away, and Vanessa’s eyes snake around the room. I pull her tighter to me, and she grips the side of my shirt.

“She’s still here,” I nod in the direction of her younger sister. “At the bar.”

Vanessa turns her eyes to Mary and sighs.

“Do you think this is the right thing?” she asks.

I think about my answer, though it’s the same one I’ve given the last ten times she’s asked. “Mary is an adult, and a fearsome one. She’ll be just fine.”

Vanessa chews on the inside of her cheek. I duck my head close to her ear. “Have you ever known her to do something she doesn’t want to do?”

Vanessa takes a big breath and sets her shoulders. Any concern that just showed on her face has been replaced with a cool confidence.

“Let’s do this,” she says.

I squeeze her hand and give her one last kiss before walking beside her to the front of the room. Waiters are already passing out glasses of champagne, and I snag one for me and one for Vanessa, too, though she won’t drink it.

Her pregnancy was a wanted surprise just before Christmas. Our heir. She’s too early to be showing at all, but the whole family is tickled about the fact that Willa’s baby will have a cousin less than a year younger than her. The family continues to grow, and with this announcement, it will even more.

The music quiets to a stop and the guests’ attention turns to their gracious host. I give a slight nod to my wife, and she smiles wide at everyone.

“It’s been an eventful year,” she starts. Some chuckles sound from the crowd at the understatement. “I’m grateful for every one of you. The support, the care, and the love that you show my family and each other. We would not exist without family.”

Vanessa gulps. “And to the Orlovs, many of whom this is your first New Year’s Eve party with us, thank you for being here. Your partnership has been so valuable these last months.”

She pauses for some polite applause, and her smile softens. She doesn’t look at me but at her little sister. Mary stands in a black dress, alone at the side of the room.

“As we close this year, I pray that next year will be even more fruitful and healthy for us all. I hope we will see more growth and feel united in our aims for a better future. In that vein, I would like to offer a toast to all of us, but especially to two people I love dearly.” Vanessa’s throat bobs with a swallow, and she raises her glass. “To my sister Mary, and to Maxim Orlov, who I’m thrilled to announce will be wed this February.”

The crowd buzzes at this news, turning to look for the new guests of honor. Maxim joins Mary’s side and holds his own glass up in a mirror of Vanessa’s.

“Cheers to them, and to all of us,” Vanessa says. In the shocked murmuring that has settled over the room, the crowd raises their glasses in cheers. “And now that the cheers are out of the way, please dance, drink, and enjoy the last twenty or so minutes we have of this year!”

The music starts back up and Vanessa hands off the microphone before returning to my side. I put both of our glasses onto the tray of a passing waiter and pull her to me for a kiss.

“The hard part is over,” I say.

“Don’t jinx it, the wedding hasn’t even happened yet.”

“They’ll be fine,” I say. We both glance over to where Mary and Maxim receive congratulations from a host of guests. Mary looks stiff, but more approachable than she usually does. She’s smiling, at least. “She’s good with this.”

“I know, I just. . . I wanted her to get married for love. Dad would have wanted that for all of us.”

“Your dad didn’t marry for love, right? At least not at first? And look how that turned out.”

“She’s good with it,” Vanessa echoes, reminding herself that she’s not some over-lording sister forcing Mary to wed a man twelve years older than her for an alliance. “Two of the most dangerous people in Boston, what could possibly go wrong?”

Vanessa squeezes my arm and kisses me on the lips. It still thrills me that I’m the man she kisses in front of everyone—the one she calls her husband, the one who will be the father of her children. I am the single most lucky man in the state of Massachusetts, and beyond.

“I think we should take this party to a closet somewhere,” Vanessa says with a grin in her voice. “Just tonight.”

“Lead the way, love,” I say.

I will never not be thrilled to follow where she goes.

THE END