I set the cup aside and smile. It’s been almost a week since the shooting. I haven’t left the hospital since we got here so yeah, I probably look like shit.
“Pot calling the kettle black,” I say. And what I feel, it’s elation. All that’s happened, what he did…all I can think is that he’s alive. He’s alive. “I’m going to beat the shit out of you when you get out of here.”
A shadow crosses his features just as the door opens and we both turn to find Gabriela walk inside.
I stand, smile at her, wrap my arm around her waist. She has some scratches, some bumps, but she’s fine. Again, I’m grateful.
“How do you feel?” she asks Rafa.
“Pain killers are doing their work,” he says.
He was badly injured. The bullet his father put in him missed his heart by a hair or this would be much worse. That wasn’t the only bullet he took but it was the worst.
She touches the bandage on his face. “Girls like scars, right?” He’ll have one across his right cheek, a constant reminder of how close he came to death.
He doesn’t smile. “I’m sorry,” he says, looking from her to me. “I’m sorry for all of it. I knew better and I’m sorry.”
My throat tightens.
Gabriela pushes hair off Rafa’s face then leans down to kiss his forehead and whispers something to him. She straightens, turns to me and slides her hands into mine.
“I’ll wait for you outside. You need to come home with me Stefan.”
I nod, squeeze her hands. I don’t watch her go.
Rafa stares up at me.
“You almost died,” I say, sitting back down.
“I deserved to die. Part of me wanted to. I betrayed you, Stefan. And all you’ve ever been is a brother to me. Blood or not.”
“You took a bullet for me. That’s what I know,” I pause, consider what I’m about to say. It may be the thing to seal his fate. “I do have one question for you.”
The way he looks at me, it’s like he knows what I’m going to ask before I ask it. Knows the importance of his answer.
“Did you know they’d put Gabriela at the bottom of that well?”
His face contorts, eyes wet as he shakes his head. “No. I didn’t know they’d do that to her. Believe it or not, I never wanted her hurt.”
I do believe it. Maybe it’s stupid of me, but I do.
The door opens again and Gabriela peers inside. “The car’s here.”
I nod, stand and when Rafa’s hand closes over mine, I see on his face the pain it costs him.
I close my other hand over his and I look at him and think about what he’s lost too. And I know myself. I don’t forgive easily. And I never forget. But I want to.
“Get better, brother.”
Epilogue 1
Stefan
It’s been three months since everything.
For three months, I haven’t let Gabriela out of my sight. For three months, I’ve woken in the night to look at her. To touch her. To feel her beside me. To know she’s there. To know she’s real.
I look at her now, too, in the glow of the moon. The night is clear but cooler than the last time we sailed out here. Out to Skull Rock.
She’s quiet but she smiles more even if her smiles are sad.
I think that’s always going to be a part of her. That sadness. It’s woven into the fabric of her. It makes her who she is.
But it’s changing little by little. Those smiles, they appear more and more.
I bring the boat up to the beach and climb out. She stands as I secure it before helping her out. We’re both barefoot and the sand feels good.
“How cold will it be here in winter?” she asks.
“Mild. Nowhere near as cold as New York.”
We sit on the sand and I follow her gaze to the sky. I remember our last conversation when we were here. It was the day of Alex’s memorial service and she’d told me she believed we became those stars when we died.
“Are you looking for your mom?” I ask her.
She nods. “Dad too.”
I squeeze her hand. “He did the right thing in the end.”
She glances at me, exhales. “A single heroic act does not a hero make, Stefan. But it must mean something.”
“It does.”
She turns away, and I can see she’s struggling to believe that. “What happens with you and Rafa now?” she asks when she shifts her gaze back to mine.
After his release from the hospital, Rafa left. It was a mutual decision. Things can’t go back to what they were. I think he and I both know that. But I also wasn’t ready to do what I, as head of the family, should do.
“I don’t know.”
“He saved your life.”
“I know. But the family has suffered again due to betrayal. I can’t let that go.”
“He’s been punished enough, don’t you think? He lost everything.”
“He lost everything he would have stolen from me.”
“You don’t care about that more than you care about him.”
She’s right. And he did lose it all. Even Clara. Although I’m not sure that was such a big loss.
“What happens if I let this go? History repeats, Gabriela, unless we break the cycles.”
“Then punish him if you have to but bring him back. You miss him. I see it, Stefan. I feel it.”
“You’re gentle. After everything.” I study her face in the moonlight. “I love you. Do you know that?” I ask. “I watch you at night, when you sleep.”
“Creeper.” She makes a face that makes me smile at least momentarily.
“I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“I don’t want us to ever find that out. I love you, Stefan. I remember the first time you said that. I told you I hated you and you said I didn’t. You said that I loved you. That was when I knew.”
I sit up, reach into my pocket. “I have something for you.” I take it out, keep it in the palm of my hand.
She sits up too. Waits.
“I want to make this right. Do it again, do it right.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Give me your hand,” I tell her, taking her left hand. I take both the engagement ring and the wedding band off and pocket them.
“What are you doing?”
“You didn’t like those, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. A little over the top.”
“Hideous. Like how this started.”
I open my hand and she looks at it, at the ring in the center of my palm.
“What is it?”
“What does it look like?”
She meets my eyes. “Don’t be an ass.”
I smile, take the ring and bring it to her finger. “This is my mother’s wedding ring. My father gave it to her. It’s an old Sabbioni family ring, more than a hundred years old.”
“It’s beautiful,” she says, looking down at it.
“Will you marry me, Gabriela?”
“We’re already married, Stefan.”
“Now who’s being an ass?”
She laughs.
“Well?”