Page 136 of Beauty and the Daddy
The words wash over me—vows, promises, forever talk—but all I can focus on is Luca's eyes, dark and steady, anchored on me.
When it's his turn, he doesn't even look at the paper he wrote.
"You walked into my world like a storm," he says, voice carrying across the garden. "All fire and defiance and stubborn hope. You saw past the monster everyone else feared and found the man I thought I'd buried with Elena."
His voice cracks slightly. "You made me a father again. You made me human again. You loved Sofia like she was yours from the first day. You gave me Leo. You gave me a reason to build something beautiful instead of just protecting what I had."
Cue the waterworks. From me, from Sofia, from half the guards pretending they're allergic to flowers.
When it's my turn, I manage to say something coherent—something about how he ruined me for any other man, how I fell for the Beast and found the man underneath.
It's messy and it's mine, and he listens like every word is a vow carved in stone.
The rings slide onto fingers. The kiss comes hot and hungry, church rules be damned.
Leo squeals like he's cheering us on, and the crowd laughs.
The reception is a blur of champagne flutes, Sofia sneaking extra cake, and Bruno lying under the table like he's eaten his weight in steak.
Meatball steals shrimp off someone's plate and vanishes like a ghost.
My father sits at the head table, eyes wet, face soft in a way I never thought I'd see again.
At one point, Luca leans over, murmuring against my ear, "This is just the beginning."
And I believe him.
Because for the first time in forever, my life isn't a battlefield. It's a family.
A messy, loud, beautiful family with a cat that won't obey orders and a dog that would die for me and a man who already did everything but.
As night settles over our celebration, fairy lights turn the gardens into something magical.
Leo sleeps against my shoulder, perfect and peaceful.
Sofia spins in her tiara while Bruno follows like her devoted knight.
Meatball has claimed the head table and surveys his kingdom with typical feline superiority.
My father sits with tears in his eyes, holding a champagne flute like it contains all his gratitude.
Luca's hand finds mine, fingers intertwining, and when I look at him, I see everything we've built together reflected in his smile.
This is the life I never dared to dream. The family I never thought I deserved.
The love that grew from the ashes of deals and debts and desperate choices.
He was the Beast, but I became the reason he built the castle around us.
SPECIAL EPILOGUE
LUCA
Six years later
"NO! STOP! PLEASE!"
The screaming cuts through the morning air like a blade. My blood turns to ice. My hand moves instinctively toward the Glock holstered beneath my bed, every nerve firing as I scan for threats, for exits, for the source of terror in my home.
