The Broken One (Corisi Billionaires, #1)(71)

When I rose to my feet, Heather simply hugged me, then put out her arm for Ava to join in. It was a sappy scene, but not one my brothers mocked. They knew the depths of where I’d been and how much this meant to me.

My parents stood and each hugged Heather, welcoming her and Ava to the family. My brothers followed suit. When we took our seats again, Ava asked, “Mommy, can I go get Wolfie? I want him to meet my new family.”

“I’ll get him,” I said.

“I’ll go with you,” Heather said.

As soon as the front door closed behind us, she was in my arms. Our kiss tasted of forever. I raised my head and said, “I’m not a perfect man.”

“Great, now you tell me.” She cupped my cheek with one hand.

I laid my hand over hers. “But I’m going to do my damnedest to be the husband you deserve and the father Ava wants.”

She went up on her tiptoes and whispered. “News flash, we’re not perfect either. On my best day I’m only sixty-five percent certain I know what I’m doing as a parent.”

I smiled. “I bet we can get that to at least seventy percent if we put our heads together.”

She laughed. “I love you, Sebastian.”

“I love you, too, Heather. Now why did we come out here?”





EPILOGUE



* * *



SEBASTIAN

May 20—one year later

As I laid a bouquet of flowers at the base of Therese’s headstone, I didn’t know if she could hear me, but I needed to believe she could.

Look at me, Therese. It’s the anniversary of the day you left, and I’m sober.

My eyes misted.

Six years and I can still remember the way you liked your coffee, and I regret every time I complained that your feet were too cold to tuck beneath me as we slept.

I laid my hand on the top of her stone.

I’m not angry anymore. I couldn’t stay in that place—it was killing me.

The platinum and gold ring shone on my left hand.

Heather and I are married now. You should see the house we live in. You would have hated it, because you would have insisted on cleaning it yourself. Heather doesn’t worry about things like that.

You’d like her—she’s not afraid of speaking her mind.

She could have come to work for Romano Superstores, but she likes her independence.

And I don’t mind that.

I can’t keep flogging myself for what I did wrong with you. All I can do is try not to repeat those mistakes.

Oh, and I know you sent her to me, because when I get out of line, she kicks my ass.

I smiled.

Not saying I don’t deserve it.

Mauricio is enjoying the show a little too much. So if I can put in a request, could you please send him someone who will knock a little of that cockiness out of him? Someone nice that my parents will love, but you know Mauricio. His ego could use a trim.

I glanced back at my car. Heather was waiting patiently beside it.

I love her, Therese. I love the life we’re making together. Ava is in kindergarten now and growing up too fast. Heather worries that we’re spoiling her. But Mom and Dad dote on my little peanut. For her birthday, Gian bought her a puppy, Christof got her a kitten, and Mauricio sent her over the moon by getting her a pony.

Our house is chaotic, but I love it.

I’m happy again, Therese. That doesn’t mean I don’t miss you. It will never mean I’ll forget you. What I’m leaving behind is the guilt.

I can’t be a man who hates himself and still be a good husband and father. Did I tell you Heather is pregnant? We don’t know the sex of the baby yet, but we will as soon as it’s possible to. And I’ll be right there with her at every appointment, as I should have been with you.

Remember the bear Mom bought us when she found out you were pregnant? I intend to keep it in the baby’s room. Watch over our baby, Therese. In my mind, we’re all family.

Heather. Every time she gets in a car, a part of me wants to forbid her to. I’m getting better, though. I couldn’t Bubble Wrap her and keep her safe even if I tried. She’s an independent woman with strong opinions of her own.

It’s good for me.

I called to Heather to join me. She came over and slid beneath my arm. When I told her where I was going that morning, she’d asked me only how she could best support me.

Another woman might have resented Therese.

Some might have jealously asked me to choose.

That wasn’t Heather.

She’d once told me she understood loss, and she did.

“Tell me a favorite memory you have together,” Heather requested.

I didn’t. As kind as she was, I didn’t want to do that to her.

She looked up at me with such love in her eyes there was no way I could deny her anything. “If our places were reversed, I would want the best of who I’d been to be remembered. That’s what I’d want to live on. I’ll come here every year with you, but I think we should leave Therese laughing. So share something she would have told me if she were here. How did you meet?”

I had to reach deep into my memories for that. With Heather in the circle of my arms, I shared a story about Therese walking into my father’s store. That was all it had taken. I’d accidentally double-charged her credit card—something she’d always teased me about doing, saying I’d done it on purpose so I could see her again. My defense? How could any man be held accountable for how many times he put a credit card through when he’d just met his future wife?