Mob Boss Series Book #1: The Russian Heir

Epilogue

Bryce's POV
He's throwing stones into the ocean. When we were kids we used to compete on who would throw the furthest. Dad would beat both of us but it was still fun.

He is lingering a short distance away to give us space.

"What do you want? I won't let you meet her." I told him as I got close. He stopped throwing stones and paid attention to me. It's dark. I can barely see his face. He got closer to me.

"It's a girl. Congratulations."

"To you or to me?" I questioned.

He stopped throwing stones. He tucked his hands into the pockets of his pants as he got closer. The moon is high and I can faintly see his slightly bruised face.

"All my life I have had to live with coming second to you. There's no single time I have had first place or when anyone noticed me before they noticed you. Your overbearing shadow left me feeling disadvantaged at everything. While I was able to get over it, there's one thing I couldn't stomach. Losing my first love. Lettie is the first girl I have ever loved and the only one so far. I expected you to tell mom and dad that you don't love her and that I do. You knew damn well I liked her but you still fell in love with her. That hurt me. It broke my heart over and over again to see her with you."

"You know that I couldn't say anything about it to dad. He had made up his mind. I didn't know you love her. I knew you had a crush on her and I take fault for not acknowledging your feelings. But she didn't like you like that. If she said anything that pointed to her being in love with you we could have worked something out."

"That's the painful reality about love. It's not always returned." He looked away with a bitter expression. "I'm deeply in love with her. I couldn't help it Bryce. As my love for her grew, the hate I felt for you did too and by the time I was taking her from you I had made peace with whatever consequences were to follow. I wasn't thinking about your feelings or hers. For the first time it was me first and i wanted to be first. But I couldn't get her to look at me as anything more than a man who took her from her husband. All said and done, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you."

"Thank you for the apology Brody but you know that this won't change anything. It won't remove the damage you have done."

"I don't expect an apology to do that. It's just for you to know that I'm sorry and it won't ever happen again. I promise."

I let out a sigh of frustration. Dad is still watching over us. Domingo is high above looking down at the beach. I can't help but remember what he said about his twin. If I lose Brody, I won't be happy. He's my little brother. He has made stupid decisions but deep down I still care about him.

"I accept your apology. So what now? Are you moving to the moon?"

He chuckled. "I wish. Breaking away from your shadow helped me to learn a few things. I realized I'm not much of a runner so no. I won't be moving to the dark side of the moon. Uncle Marcelle got me fired from the St Patrick Group. He said he will make sure that ad long as he's breathing I'll never work anywhere in the states so... you won't be seeing me around New York. But when mom and dad invite me to family gatherings I'll show up. I have no intention whatsoever of snobbing that."

"Let's talk about the girl. She's mine. I won't have you around her. You have no visitation rights. You have zero rights to her. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

I felt puzzled by the quick agreement.

"So you won't fight for your kid?"

"No I won't fight for her because she's not mine. I told you I love Letitia. I would never hurt her or disrespect her by forcing myself on her. Nothing happened."

I felt a huge relief wash over me. "Then why did you say those things? Why make yourself look bad?"

"Because for a moment, hurting you was more important to me than my self image. I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to see you hurting like I did everytime I saw you two together."

I can't believe it. Lettie Wiko be relieved. I got her pregnant! It worked! My sigh of relief was audible. Brody maintained his serious expression.

"What now Brody? Because things won't snap back to the way they were. There's too much damage to overlook."

"I'm sorry about what I did. I can't say I have entirely come to my senses but I see what I did was wrong. I'm determined not to repeat it again. I won't come after your wife or your daughter. I'll stay away."

"Did dad beat you up too? Did he make you say these things?"

"Dad hasn't put his hands on me. He reasoned with me. It wasn't easy to see it or accept it but... I was wrong. I shouldn't have taken your wife and most importantly, I should have been honest with you from the start. I never touched Lettie. The baby is yours. I'm sorry for making you believe otherwise. I honestly don't expect anything more from you than accepting my apology. In not expecting that things will go back to the way they were. But I hope time will heal things and we can seemingly have a normal relationship again."

"I think I'll leave it to time." I answered.

"Cool." He offered me his hand. I hesitated before I reached out and shook his hand. "Till next time."

"Brody." I called him after he turned away to leave.

"Yeah?"

"Are you still the Serb boss?"

"Yeah."

"You really did break out of your timid shell. I'm proud of how brave you have gotten."

I watched him walking away until he disappeared into the darkness. My father joined me. "How did that work out?"

"He apologized. I never thought I'll hear it."

"He's not evil. He was just blindly walking down a dangerous path. I promised him I'll take care of him so if I spend too much time with him don't take it personally. I think with proper guidance, Brody can be something formidable. Congratulations on your daughter Bryce."

"You knew?"

"It was one of the first things he came clean about. Tell your mom I'll see her at home."

"Bye." I waved at him. He also disappeared into the darkness.

This family has really come a long way but I think we are going to be all right.

I rejoined my family. Mom has found the perfect photo. It's the first one we took before she frustrated everyone. Lettie's parents are beside me and my parents are beside her. Katya and Ferrer managed to squeeze beside either side of the baby. It's a beautiful picture.

"I can't wait to frame this!" She smiled. "This is good. This is really good. The sun has really risen on this family."

I wrapped my arms around her. "We are going to have better days. I'm sure of it."

*THE END*