Chapter 7 - The Flowers Ruby Actually Liked
Sebastian did not look away from his brother.
Luca held the gun steady.
Enzo smiled beside them.
“That’s it,” he said. “Finish what your father started.”
Inside the safe room, Elena whispered, “No.”
Ruby watched Luca’s face.
The scar.
The trembling jaw.
The eyes that looked so much like Sebastian’s and nothing like them at all.
Something was wrong.
Not with Luca.
With the angle.
Ruby moved closer to the monitor.
The gun was pointed past Sebastian.
Not at him.
“Wait.”
Sofia stared.
“What?”
“He’s not aiming at Sebastian.”
On the screen, Luca fired.
Enzo screamed.
The weapon flew from his hand.
Sebastian threw himself sideways with the chair.
Luca lunged.
Chaos exploded.
Two security men rushed through the foyer.
Enzo tried reaching for his fallen gun.
Luca kicked it away.
Sebastian, still tied, shouted something Ruby could not hear.
Then sirens rose beyond the estate.
Federal agents.
Police.
Ambulances.
The files had gone through.
Ruby exhaled for what felt like the first time in an hour.
Elena cried openly now.
“He’s alive.”
Ruby squeezed her shoulder.
“Yes.”
The safe-room intercom buzzed.
A security officer identified himself.
They waited until the biometric system confirmed him.
Only then did Sofia unlock the door.
Ruby pushed Elena into the hall.
The mansion looked as though a storm had passed through it.
Broken glass.
Scattered furniture.
Security everywhere.
But no bodies.
No terrible stillness.
Sebastian stood in the foyer.
His wrists had been cut free.
Blood ran from his temple.
Ruby stopped.
He looked at her.
Then she ran.
She did not care who saw.
She hit him hard enough that he staggered.
His arms closed around her immediately.
“You came back,” she whispered.
“I said I would.”
“You also got hit in the head.”
“Technicality.”
She pulled away.
“You need stitches.”
“I’m fine.”
“You are literally bleeding on my dress.”
He looked down.
“Sorry.”
“That wasn’t permission to die.”
His mouth twitched.
Then Ruby became aware of the silence around them.
Elena.
Sofia.
Security officers.
Federal agents.
And one man standing ten feet away.
Luca.
Sebastian saw her looking.
His expression changed.
He released Ruby slowly.
Then turned.
The brothers faced each other.
Nobody interrupted.
Luca looked older than his photographs.
Not in years.
In what years had done to him.
He spoke first.
“Hey, Seb.”
Sebastian swallowed.
“You’re alive.”
“So I’ve been told.”
A broken laugh escaped Sebastian.
Then he crossed the distance.
He punched Luca.
Everyone froze.
Luca staggered.
Ruby gasped.
Sebastian grabbed his brother and pulled him into an embrace.
Luca broke.
So did Sebastian.
For six years Sebastian Romano had carried grief like armor.
Now it fell apart.
He held his brother while both men cried.
Elena covered her mouth.
“Luca.”
He looked toward her.
“Ma.”
She tried standing.
Ruby barely caught the wheelchair.
Luca ran to her.
He dropped to his knees.
Elena touched his face as though afraid he might disappear.
“My baby.”
“I’m sorry.”
She slapped him.
Luca blinked.
Then she kissed his forehead.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
He laughed through tears.
“Yes, Ma.”
Ruby turned away to give them privacy.
Sebastian reached for her hand.
He did not speak.
He simply held it.
Federal agents arrested Enzo Bellini before sunrise.
Marco was taken into custody near the river warehouse.
The man in the photograph pretending to be Luca turned out to be an actor with a criminal record and a substantial gambling debt.
Dante surrendered two days later.
Sofia’s evidence changed everything.
So did Luca’s.
For years he had collected financial records, shipping manifests, recorded conversations, and witness statements.
Enzo’s trafficking network extended through multiple states.
The arrests did not happen quietly.
News coverage exploded.
Businesses closed.
Politicians denied knowing anyone.
Lawyers became very busy.
Sebastian did something nobody expected.
He cooperated.
Not partially.
Not strategically.
Completely.
Ruby sat beside him the night before he met federal prosecutors.
They were in Elena’s library.
His stitches had been removed.
A thin scar remained near his hairline.
“You could go to prison,” Ruby said.
“Yes.”
“You’re unusually calm about that.”
“I’m terrified.”
She looked at him.
“Good.”
He smiled faintly.
“Thank you.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
“If you did illegal things, you have to answer for them.”
“I know.”
She studied him.
“And if they let you walk because you’re useful?”
“I won’t walk.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m dissolving the organization.”
Ruby stared.
“The entire thing?”
“The illegal operations.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“It is.”
“What about your men?”
“Some become employees of legitimate businesses. Some leave. Some will hate me.”
“And the territory?”
“Let law enforcement worry about territory.”
Ruby leaned back.
“What happened to ‘power doesn’t disappear when good men surrender it’?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“I was wrong.”
That surprised her.
He continued.
“Power isn’t worth becoming the thing you’re trying to prevent.”
Ruby’s expression softened.
“You finally figured that out?”
“My mother has been telling me for twenty years.”
“She’ll be furious you learned it from me.”
“She’ll claim credit.”
From the doorway, Elena said, “I heard that.”
Ruby laughed.
Elena had recovered enough to walk with a cane.
She entered carrying tea.
Luca followed.
The sight of him still made Sebastian pause occasionally.
As though reality needed reconfirmation.
Sofia had decided to remain in New York for a while.
Not with Sebastian.
That chapter had closed gently.
She had a life in Montreal.
Friends.
A teaching job.
Someone she admitted she had been seeing for nearly a year.
When she told Sebastian, Ruby had prepared for awkwardness.
Instead, Sebastian had smiled.
“I hope he deserves you.”
Sofia had replied, “He does.”
Then she had looked at Ruby.
“And so does she.”
Three weeks later, Sebastian accepted a cooperation agreement.
Because of his assistance, his role in dismantling Enzo’s network, and the fact prosecutors found no evidence connecting him personally to trafficking or narcotics, he avoided prison.
He did not avoid consequences.
He paid massive fines.
Several businesses were seized.
Licenses were surrendered.
He testified publicly.
And for the first time in his adult life, Sebastian Romano became a man without an empire.
Ruby wondered whether that would break him.
Instead, it seemed to let him breathe.
Six months passed.
Elena recovered.
Luca began therapy.
Lots of it.
So did Sebastian.
Ruby had suggested that.
Sebastian had initially responded, “I don’t need therapy.”
Elena said, “You need two therapists.”
He went.
Ruby returned to work full time.
She refused Sebastian’s offer to pay off her apartment.
She refused his offer to buy her a car.
She refused his offer to “upgrade” her kitchen.
Finally she said, “If you buy me one more expensive thing I did not ask for, I’m dating a plumber.”
Sebastian looked genuinely alarmed.
“What plumber?”
“Exactly.”
He learned.
Slowly.
He learned Ruby liked handwritten notes more than jewelry.
She preferred neighborhood restaurants to private dining rooms.
She hated surprise parties.
Loved old movies.
Cried during animal rescue videos.
And absolutely refused to let him send a driver when the subway was faster.
Ruby learned things too.
Sebastian snored lightly when exhausted.
He could cook exactly three meals.
He was terrible at folding fitted sheets.
He feared hospitals despite pretending otherwise.
And every Sunday morning he called his mother before doing anything else.
He also never once asked Ruby to lose weight.
Never praised her for eating less.
Never made her body sound like something he was nobly overlooking.
He loved her without qualifiers.
That took Ruby longer to trust than she wanted to admit.
One afternoon, almost a year after Elena’s heart scare, Ruby returned to the mansion.
Elena now used her former medical room as a sunroom.
No IV stand.
No monitor.
No pharmacy bags.
Only books, tea, and an unreasonable number of pillows.
Ruby entered carrying groceries.
Elena frowned.
“Why are you bringing things?”
“Because you invited me for lunch.”
“I invited you, not the supermarket.”
Ruby laughed.
Then stopped.
Pink peonies filled every vase.
Dozens.
Maybe hundreds.
“Oh, no.”
Elena smiled.
“Oh, yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Garden.”
Ruby looked suspiciously at her.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“That is exactly what guilty people say.”
Elena waved her away.
“Go.”
Ruby walked through the French doors.
Sebastian stood beneath the old oak tree.
No black three-piece suit.
No armed entourage.
He wore dark trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
In his hands was one small bouquet.
Pink peonies.
Not hundreds.
Just seven.
Ruby stopped in front of him.
“You finally bought the right flowers.”
“It took me a while.”
“Only a year.”
“I’m improving.”
She smiled.
“What’s this?”
“Flowers.”
“I can see that.”
“I practiced not overcomplicating things.”
“Your therapist?”
“My mother.”
“Worse.”
He laughed.
Then his expression became serious.
Ruby’s heart shifted.
Sebastian handed her the bouquet.
“I used to think loving someone meant making sure nothing could reach them.”
Ruby listened.
“So I controlled people. Hid things. Made decisions for them.”
“You did.”
“I was terrible.”
“You were.”
He smiled slightly.
“Can you let me finish?”
“Probably.”
He took her hand.
“I know I can’t promise you nothing bad will ever happen.”
Ruby’s eyes warmed.
“I can promise I won’t lie to protect you.”
She squeezed his fingers.
“I won’t decide your life for you.”
“Good.”
“And I won’t treat loving you like a weakness.”
Ruby swallowed.
Sebastian reached into his pocket.
She stared.
“No.”
He froze.
“What?”
“If that ring cost more than my annual salary, I’m saying no.”
His face went blank.
Ruby burst out laughing.
Sebastian slowly shook his head.
“You’re impossible.”
“Answer the question.”
“It cost less.”
“How much less?”
“Ruby.”
“How much?”
Elena shouted from the window.
“Just say yes!”
Ruby turned.
“Elena!”
Luca appeared beside his mother.
“Please say yes. He’s been unbearable for three weeks.”
Sofia appeared behind him.
Ruby’s jaw dropped.
“You’re here?”
Sofia grinned.
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“I asked everyone to stay inside.”
Elena yelled, “We are inside!”
Ruby laughed so hard tears filled her eyes.
Sebastian looked up at her.
All the old intimidation was gone.
This was just the man.
Nervous.
Hopeful.
Vulnerable.
He lowered himself onto one knee.
Ruby’s laughter faded.
“Ruby Bennett.”
“Yes?”
“I had an entire speech.”
“I’m sure it was very dramatic.”
“It was excellent.”
“I believe you.”
“I’ve forgotten all of it.”
Her eyes filled.
Sebastian held up the ring.
Small.
Elegant.
Perfect.
“So I’ll ask you the only part that matters.”
Ruby covered her mouth.
“Will you marry me?”
She let him wait three seconds.
Mostly because Elena deserved punishment.
Then Ruby smiled.
“Yes.”
Sebastian exhaled.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
He stood and pulled her into his arms.
Applause erupted from the windows.
Elena cried.
Luca whistled.
Sofia shouted, “Finally!”
Ruby kissed Sebastian beneath the oak tree.
No danger.
No secrets.
No enemies waiting at the gate.
Just sunlight.
Peonies.
And a second chance neither of them had expected.
They married four months later in Elena’s garden.
Small ceremony.
Family only.
Luca stood beside Sebastian.
Sofia attended with her partner from Montreal.
Elena wore pale blue and spent the entire reception telling anyone who would listen that the marriage had happened because she had once insulted Sebastian’s choice of flowers.
Ruby let her.
She had earned it.
Near sunset, Ruby found Elena sitting beneath the oak tree.
The older woman looked healthier than she had in years.
“You tired?” Ruby asked.
“A little.”
Ruby sat beside her.
Elena took her hand.
“You know what I thought the first day you came into my room?”
“What?”
“That my son was going to fall in love with you.”
Ruby laughed.
“You had never even introduced us.”
“I know my son.”
“You also told three nurses they were unsuitable because one called you sweetie.”
“She deserved it.”
Ruby leaned her head against Elena’s shoulder.
Across the lawn, Sebastian laughed at something Luca said.
For years he had carried ghosts.
Now his brother stood beside him.
His mother was alive.
His past had consequences, but it no longer owned his future.
Sebastian noticed Ruby watching.
His expression softened.
He crossed the lawn.
“Everything okay?”
Elena said, “We were discussing how right I always am.”
Sebastian sighed.
“Of course.”
Ruby stood.
He offered his hand.
She took it.
“Dance?”
“There’s no music.”
Sebastian looked toward Luca.
Luca immediately pulled out his phone.
A slow song began through the garden speakers.
Ruby laughed.
“You planned that.”
“I plan everything.”
“I thought we were working on that.”
“Some habits are useful.”
He drew her closer.
Ruby rested one hand against his chest.
Sebastian looked down at her.
“You know something?”
“What?”
“My mother was wrong.”
Elena shouted from behind them, “I heard that!”
Ruby smiled.
“About what?”
Sebastian kissed her forehead.
“I didn’t come back every day because of you.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow.
“No?”
“No.”
He glanced toward Elena.
“The first day was for my mother.”
“And the other days?”
Sebastian smiled.
“Every one of those was for you.”
Ruby looked at the pink peonies surrounding the garden.
Then at the man who had once believed love made people weak.
She touched his cheek.
“And you finally learned which flowers I like.”
“I had excellent instruction.”
Elena called out, “You’re welcome!”
Ruby laughed.
Sebastian kissed her.
May you like
And this time, nobody in the Romano family needed a secret, an excuse, or a lie to explain why he had come home.
THE END
