The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(68)

Sitting across from the man I love for the final time I wonder how I ever let myself become so jaded by the trials and tribulations we stumbled upon in our years together. Why did I let the heartache trump the happiness? Why couldn’t I hang on to all the times he made me smile, all the times I looked into his eyes and knew I was his one and only. Why wasn’t the love we created enough to outweigh the torment of the mob?

I foolishly thought we had years to figure it out, to mend the broken parts of our love. I never expected thirty years to go by in a flash. I never expected a judge to slam down the gavel and sentence him to life in prison. I never expected for him to become fatally ill. I never expected to be sitting here wishing for more time.

I glance down at his hands and my heart breaks at the comparison. His hands are twice the size of mine just as they were thirty years ago but instead of his olive skin matching mine, there is a stark contrast. His skin pales compared to mine.

“I dreamt of you last night,” he breathes. I peel my eyes away from our hands and lift them to his. “I always dream of you but last night was one of my favorites,” he struggles, breathing heavily. “Give me a moment,” he requests.

“You don’t have to speak,” I tell him.

“But I do,” he argues. “It’s now or never, Gracie.”

I nod sadly, glancing down at our hands again, watching as his thumb draws circles over my palm.

“It was the grand opening of my first night club,” he starts, smiling nostalgically.

“Eternity,” I recall. I teased him mercilessly over the name he chose for his first venture as a night club owner. Victor knew the scene, appreciated it and at the time figured it was a great way to hide the illegal money coming in.

“You remember,” he says.

I laugh slightly.

“How could I forget? I was eight months pregnant with Adrianna,” I reply. We argued that night, I didn’t want to go, figuring I looked ridiculous sitting in a night club with a glass of seltzer and a big belly, but Victor insisted I be there.

There is no one I want by my side but you. This is our night, Gracie.

“You were the most beautiful woman in the whole place,” he whispers. “I made Jimmy stand by the bar with you all night in case you went into labor.”

“I remember you kept checking in on me,” I whisper, a small smile playing on my lips as the memories vividly take over my mind, transfixing me back to a time when we were the happiest in our lives. “You were so worried my water would break,” I chuckle. “I think you were afraid I would ruin the fancy floors you had spent a fortune on.”

“Probably,” he agrees, pausing for a moment. “I wish you would’ve gone into labor that night, at least I would’ve been there for you when you gave birth.”

He frowns but keeps his eyes firmly planted on mine.

I prayed so hard that he would make it in time to see our daughter being born but God didn’t hear me that night and Victor showed up an hour after Adrianna took her first breath.

“That was the first time I disappointed you,” he continues. “The first of many.”

“Victor…” I cut him off, but he shakes his head as he releases my hand and lifts his finger to my lip.

“If I could turn back time, if I could have one more chance, I’d be there. I’d never leave your side, Gracie. I’d change all the things I did wrong,” he says. “I’d always show up, I’d always put you first, and we’d have no regrets, not a single one. As God as my witness I’d give it all up—the mob, the power, the money—maybe I’d be a bus driver. We would still live in the first house we bought after we got married. I’d trade everything I am, everything I ever was if it meant one more chance to make all your dreams come true. I’d be a different man.”

Again, I part my lips to speak, but he shakes his head and smiles faintly back at me.

“Let it be,” he whispers.

Tears fall from the corner of my eyes as we sit quietly cataloging every detail of one another’s aging face to memory. The resentment of the mob fades away and in that moment we are just Grace and Victor, two unsuspecting strangers in a night club—meeting their eternal love for the first time.

He smiles at me, the lines in the corner of his eyes pinched with the years of our story embedded in his skin, and it all became so clear. Victor was my one and only. The only man I was ever meant to love, the man put on this earth specifically for me. Our life may not have been what we expected, but it was beautiful and it was real. When the end approaches everyone has regrets, maybe they wish they would’ve done things differently, but now as the end of our story nears, I know all the answers to the questions I’ve been asking myself lately. I wouldn’t change a single thing. If I knew everything I knew now back then, I still would’ve put that white dress on and made that trip down the church aisle to the man waiting to marry me.

I let go of Victor’s hands, pushed back my chair and gripped the edge of the table, I rose to my full height. His eyes narrow in confusion as I hold his gaze and round the table. He leans back in the chair and tilts his head as I lean down and take his face in my hands.

“I can’t let it be,” I murmured, as he pushes back his chair and grabs my hips, pulling me down onto his lap. I drop my hands from his face and wind my arms around his neck.