With Every Beat of My Heart

Epilogue: (Nico) Just Happy

I smiled at Lil Leo as he sat in his little suitcase pretending to be on a boat. I was packing his things for our short family trip to San Diego. Nina was in our bedroom finishing up with her online lesson. She had enrolled in school part-time and was working on her Master's in Social Work degree.

It had been five months since Alex and Athena's wedding, and my unfortunate stabbing incident. I had asked everyone to keep the whole thing quiet until Alex and Athena returned from their honeymoon. I finally told them what had happened when they arrived back in LA. Athena was so upset; she cried for thirty minutes as I held her. Alex couldn't even look me in the eyes. He felt guilty and thought it was all his fault. "I should have expected something like this from her," he'd claimed. I tried to reassure him, but his guilt did not wane. He was working with Theo and Liam to see what could be done with Virginia but, with no weapon and no witnesses, I doubted anything could be done.

"Dada, Sadiego," Lil Leo yelled, distracting me from my thoughts.

I approached him, grabbed him from the suitcase, and held him in my arms. "Yes, little man. We're going to San Diego tomorrow."

"Sadiego, now," he demanded.

"No Leo, we're going tomorrow, after one more sleep," I replied as I chuckled at him.

He pouted at me. "Sleep?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, little man, you're not going to sleep now. We're going to San Diego after one more sleep."

He continued to pout as Nina's chuckles sounded from behind me. I turned toward the bedroom door and saw Nina watching us with a smile, carrying Lana on her hip.

"I told you to wait until tomorrow to tell him," she said to me. "I knew he'd be too excited for the trip."

"You were right, sweetheart. He's been asking me when we're going all day long."

She walked toward us; her smile shining brightly. "He's just happy, Nico. And, so am I."