Chapter 18 - THIS TIME, THE SHOES TOLD THE TRUTH
Years later, Sophia still arrived too early on Sundays.
Some traditions resisted reform.
One winter morning, she entered the penthouse shortly after seven.
She carried pastries.
Matteo had repeatedly requested that she call first.
Sophia considered this unnecessary bureaucracy.
She approached the private hallway.
Then stopped.
Black heels rested beside Matteo’s shoes.
She smiled.
Years earlier, those same shoes had caused a lie.
A fake engagement.
Chicago gossip.
A chain of events nobody could have predicted.
This time Sophia did not open the door.
She quietly turned around.
Mostly.
Inside, Emma woke beneath Matteo’s arm.
Morning light crossed the sheets.
She looked at him.
Still intimidating asleep.
Less so with his hair slightly disordered.
His eyes opened.
“You’re staring.”
“You’re old.”
“I’m forty-two.”
“Ancient.”
“You married me.”
“Administrative error.”
He pulled her closer.
Emma laughed.
On the nightstand rested the old brass key from the estate.
Matteo had framed it after their wedding.
Emma considered that unbearably sentimental.
Which was why she secretly loved it.
She touched his hand.
“Do you ever wish none of it happened?”
“The kidnapping?”
“Yes.”
“The shootings?”
“Yes.”
“My cousin murdering my father?”
“Obviously.”
“The risotto?”
“Especially.”
Matteo thought.
“I wish none of those things happened.”
Emma waited.
“But I don’t wish you away to erase them.”
Her expression softened.
That was the right answer.
Not:
Everything happened for a reason.
Some things never deserved a reason.
Daniel nearly died.
Sophia was kidnapped.
People were betrayed.
Emma was shot.
Good endings did not make suffering necessary.
They simply meant suffering had failed to decide everything that came afterward.
Emma kissed Matteo.
Outside the door, Sophia dropped something.
Matteo closed his eyes.
“Mother.”
Silence.
Then:
“I’m in the kitchen!”
Emma laughed.
Matteo sighed.
And beside the bed, two pairs of shoes rested together.
The first time, they had told a convincing lie.
This time, they told the truth.
Emma Collins had entered Matteo Romano’s life by accident.
She had stayed by choice.
And Matteo, who once believed love gave the world something it could use against him, finally understood the part his father never had.
Loving someone did give you something you could lose.
But refusing to love anyone meant you had already lost it.
Matteo tightened his arm around Emma.
Not to keep her from leaving.
Because he knew she could.
May you like
And she was still there.
THE END
