by Kitty Parker
"You're not dead!" I cried happily.
"No I'm not dead." He said with a crooked grin plastered on his face.
"But I heard the gun go off! Mason shot you!"
"No he didn't."
"But-"
"I shot Mason." Seth proclaimed from behind us.
I released my hold on Andrew and spun around to look at him. That's when my eyes fell on something else. Mason's body. It was lying on the floor right where he had stood. His once platinum blonde hair was matted with streaks of dark crimson. I felt cold chills run through my body. How close had I been to never seeing these people again?
"Was he the only one?" I asked turning back around.
"No." Andrew replied quietly.
"Who else?" I asked afraid of the answer.
"Jett."
How had I forgotten that? The image of his lifeless body, his empty eyes. I quickly turned to where he had fallen. I was met with empty space. He wasn't there anymore.
"Where-"
"We already took him away."
"I'm so sorry." I said letting more tears fall down my face.
"For what?" Andrew asked.
"For this! All of this!" I said motioning to around the room that looked like it had been torn to shreds.
"It wasn't your fault."
"Are you kidding me! All of this was because of me! If it wasn't for me, Jett would still be alive, Mason would still be alive, nobody would be hurt, you wouldn't have gone through this hell!"
"If it wasn't for you, I would be in hell. Without you, I wouldn't be who I am." He said ending my rant.
"But-"
"No." He said firmly.
"If I had never met you, well kidnapped you, I don't know what my life would have been like. You made me open up. You brought something out of me, I don't know what but it changed me."
"Yeah he used to be an asshole before you came along." One of the twins said walking into the room. His hand was bandaged and he had a small cut above his nose.
"Hey!" Andrew yelled scowling at him.
"See what I mean."
"So is everyone else okay?" I asked looking up at Andrew.
"Matt got his hand cut up and Mike's got a broken collar bone."
"What about Aidan and…"
"We have both of them upstairs. They're not going anywhere."
"What are you going to do with them?"
"There's two options. One would be to kill them and the other would be to call the police."
"But if you call the police won't they find out about all of you?"
"No. My father would leave and we would tell the cops that they murdered Mason."
"Are you sure that would work?
"Trust me, it'll work. I can fly you out of here too if you want."
"No. I'm not leaving you."
"Fine. Seth go call the cops to report a murder."
Seth left with a nod of the head.
"I want to see him." I stated looking up at Andrew.
"Emma I don't think that's a good idea."
"No. I thought that man was my father for my entire life. He killed my real parents. I need to talk to him."
"Okay." He said giving in and leading me down the hall to his father's study.
He swung open the doors to reveal two men sitting in wooden chairs hands tied behind them. Andrew followed behind me as I approached them. I stood in front of him not bothering to give Aidan the time of day.
"Why?" I asked never letting my gaze leave him.
"Why what?"
"You know what. Why did you kill my parents? Why did you choose me? Why did you never love me?"
"We killed you parents to get you and don't say we never loved you."
"Don't sit here and lie to my face! You never once showed me love! Ever!"
"We loved you… at first. Your mom-"
"She is not my mother." I cut him off coldly.
"She wanted a child, or so she thought. When we got you, after about a year she realized how much hard work was involved in raising a child and stopped wanting to. I of course was too busy to look after you. That's why you had nannies until you were old enough to take care of yourself." He said without a hint of remorse in his voice.
"So I was just a thing, something to entertain you both with until you tired of me and threw me aside?" I asked angered.
"It hadn't started out like that, but more or less, that's how it ended."
How could people be so cruel? To cherish something for a moment and cast it aside like a broken toy the next.
"You disgust me." I said glaring at this man in front of me.
"I gave you everything!" He bellowed. "You were always an ungrateful, selfish, brat! I bought you the best clothes, education, house, everything!"
"EVERYTHING BUT LOVE! LOVE CANNOT BE BOUGHT!" I screamed back at him. "The only thing you ever loved was your money and what it could buy you, and the power it held over other people!"
"Emma." Andrew whispered softly placing a hand on my shoulder. I calmed down at his touch.
"How can you stand there and behave like this? He is the one that kidnapped you!"
"At first I hated him, because he took me away from my life, from everything I had. But then I realized that he actually saved me and that there was nothing back in my old life that could have been taken from me. I love him."
Those three simple words had slipped out of my mouth without a second thought. How had they come so easily, as though they had been there all along? Did I mean them? Yes. I meant them with all of my being.
I turned and walked out of the room, ignoring the shout coming from that horrible man. Andrew followed behind me and shut the door. Once in the hallway he gently pulled me against him.
"Did you mean that?" He asked his chin resting atop my head.
"Yes." I breathed out.
His grip tightened around my body and I could feel an immense relief wash over him. He pulled back, still holding onto me, and locked eyes with me. His emerald green orbs, the first thing I had seen of him. Once they were terrifying, now they were mystifying and loving.
"I love you too." He said barely above a whisper.
Nonetheless I heard it. Loud and clear as though it had been proclaimed to everyone in the world. That was the first time those words had ever been spoken to me. In all of my seventeen years no one had ever once told me they loved me. This man in front of me truly loved me.
"Andrew?" Seth asked coming up from behind us.
"Yeah?"
"The cops are here." He stated before turning and going back down the stairs.
Seconds later six cops came up the stairs and entered the study. The emerged with Aidan and my impostor father in handcuffs. They were both struggling, but had no chance of escape with three cops on them each.
"We're innocent!" Aidan yelled trying to wiggle free.
"Ask her!" My former father called out in one last desperate attempt.
"Ma'am?" An officer turned and looked at me.
"No." I said my voice strong and firm.
I watched from the top of the stairs, Andrew at my side, as the two men were carted away. Hopefully to spend the rest of their lives in jail. Gone from the rest of the world, gone from my world, my new life.
"So what now?" I asked turning to face Andrew.
"Now we start a new life."
"What?"
"This is your new life. That is if you want it to be." He added in as an after thought.
"Of course!"
"Good. Because I don't know what I would have done if you had said no."
"Why would I have said no?"
"Well after everything that's happened to you- -"
"After everything that's happened to me." I cut him off. "I've learned that everything happens for a reason, and this was a very good reason."
"So you'll stay then?" He asked still unsure.
"Yes. I'm not leaving here unless it's with you." I said making things perfectly clear.
A wide smile spread ac
ross his face as he wrapped me in a hug and passionately kissed me. We both pulled away at the same time and gazed into the others eyes.
"You're the best thing that has ever happened to me." He told me.
"You're the best thing that ever happened to me too." I professed.
"I love you." I said tears stinging the backs of my eyes.
"I love you too, and I always will."
Epilogue
The cold October wind bit at my skin and whipped my dark brown hair about. My grip tightened on the other hand that occupied mine. Every once in a while one of my fingers would slide absentmindedly over the cool silver band on his finger.
"Andrew?" I asked looking up at my husband.
"Yes?" He said turning his gaze away from the tombstone.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah." He replied with a heavy sigh, before taking one last look at the tombstone, and then turning to walk away.
I knew it had to be hard on him. To lose the only parent you had left. I would never be able to feel that emotion, but I sympathized with him. We walked farther back into the graveyard until we came upon a solid black granite tombstone.
Brother, Friend, Protector. Was elegantly carved in white marble breaking the black surface.
"It's hard to believe it's been five years." I said in a whisper.
Andrew didn't respond and I didn't expect him to.
It had been five years. Five years since this new life of mine had started. There had been deaths. Andrew's father had died not even a year after Jett had left us. No one ever knew exactly how he had died, but we all knew it was not a natural death or illness, foul play had been involved.
Six months after the passing of his father, Andrew and I were wed. It was a small ceremony. The only people that attended were Seth, Matt, Mike, and a few of Andrew's closer relatives. No one from my side of the family, because I had no family, to me this was my family.
When Andrew's father passed away, it was expected that he would take over in his place. This was the last thing I wanted for him, for us. It had taken a lot of time and talking, but in the end I finally convinced him to leave that part of his life behind. Instead Seth took over in Andrew's place. We still keep in contact with him, but only as friends. I swore to myself that I would never fall into that life.
A short, shrill cry broke through my thoughts. I looked down into my arms and soothed the child that lay there.
I might want to add that Andrew and I were now the happy parents of a little baby boy. We decided to name him Jett. He was only eight months old, and we loved him with all of our hearts. I would make sure that my child was shown all of the love that I had never received. My son's cries soon softened and disappeared.
His eyes opened to reveal the same emerald green that his father's still held. I smiled down at him and silently rocked him. Upon the news of my pregnancy, Andrew and I both decided that our child would never know about our former lives. We did not want him to grow up in that environment that Andrew had. We did not want to put him at risk as I had been. Jett would never know of that other world; we would make sure of it.
The man that had proclaimed to be my father had been sentenced to life in prison, along with Aidan, for the murder of Mason. It was quite ironic, that he was sent to prison for the on horrible deed that he did not commit. He had killed so many others, stolen me from my parents and led a mafia. No one would ever know any of that, accept for the very few of us, that had been there to witness it all.
"Are you ready?" Andrew asked looking down at his son and me.
"Yes." I replied linking my free hand with his.
We turned and walked away from the gravesites of our friends and family members and headed back to the black car that sat silently on the empty road. Jett had drifted back into a peaceful sleep, his small lips slightly parted. I turned back around to face Andrew.
"You did the right thing, you know that right?"
"What?" He asked confused.
"Not telling him. Leaving that part of your life behind. You made the right decision. He'll never have to grow up in that world, and experience the pain that comes with it."
"I know. Sometimes I just think…" He said trailing off.
"Think what?"
"What if someone finds out? What if they come after him? What if he finds out that we lied to him his whole life?"
"We'll have to face that day when it comes, but for now he's safe, we're safe. As long as Seth's in charge, he'll be safe."
"I guess so."
"Don't worry."
"I swear if something ever happens to him, I'll never forgive myself."
"Don't think like that. Nothing is going to happen to Jett."
"I never thought any of this could happen."
"I know." I said quietly, looking down at my pale hands folded in my lap.
"But I don't regret it. I may have lost a close friend and my father, but I gained the love of my life, and nothing will ever be able to replace that." He said pulling one of my hands up to his lips and kissing it.
We pulled up into the driveway and got out of the car. We no longer lived in the mansion that I had first been brought to. We escaped that world and everything to do with it. We lived in a modest sized house surrounded by five acres. I carried Jett upstairs, Andrew trailing close behind, and into his nursery. I gently laid his sleeping form into his crib and stood up with a smile on my face. Andrews draped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him.
"He's beautiful." I whispered careful not to wake him.
"Like his mother."
"Like his father."
We both gazed down on the miracle that lay before us. Something so beautiful, so pure, had come from something so wrong. Nonetheless, he was here, and as I have said before, I would protect him from that, no matter what. After all if I had learned one thing, Mafias are good at keeping secrets, and this was one secret that I would never let escape.