Chapter 7 - The Life He Never Planned
Six months later, Gabriel Romano stood in a backyard arguing with a grill.
Mia watched from the porch.
“This is incredible.”
Gabriel looked over.
“What?”
“You can intimidate half of Chicago but charcoal defeated you.”
“It’s defective.”
“It’s charcoal.”
“It’s wet.”
“You poured lighter fluid on it ten minutes ago.”
“Exactly.”
Marco walked past carrying drinks.
“The grill is fine, boss.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Whose side are you on?”
“Food’s.”
Mia laughed.
That sound still did something to Gabriel.
Six months had changed more than he expected.
Anthony Romano had accepted a plea agreement after federal prosecutors produced financial evidence, recordings and testimony linking him to Daniel’s death, Victor Hale’s murder, Peter Colson’s murder and the kidnapping conspiracy.
Damian Sterling received a reduced sentence for cooperation.
Romano Maritime survived.
Barely.
Gabriel sold the most dangerous divisions.
Closed others.
Lost contracts.
Lost money.
Lost people who only respected him when they thought he was invincible.
He discovered he didn’t miss them.
The company became smaller.
Cleaner.
Profitable enough.
And Daniel’s trust became real.
The first Romano Family Center opened on the South Side that spring.
Gabriel refused to attend the ribbon cutting.
Mia dragged him.
A nine-year-old girl handed him a construction-paper thank-you card.
He kept it in his office.
Mia pretended not to know.
Her own life changed too.
She did not return to her old job.
Gabriel offered her any position she wanted.
She rejected all of them.
Then started an independent forensic accounting firm.
Her first major client?
Romano Maritime.
Gabriel complained about her fees.
She doubled them.
He paid.
Their relationship took longer.
Neither called it one at first.
Mia stayed at the Lake Forest house while recovering.
Gabriel visited.
Then stayed.
They argued.
Frequently.
About security.
Work.
His habit of sending drivers when she wanted to use the train.
Her habit of working until midnight.
One evening she told him, “You don’t get to control every variable.”
Gabriel answered, “Watch me.”
She threw a pillow at him.
He caught it.
Then kissed her.
Their first kiss was not dramatic.
No rain.
No music.
No crisis.
Leo was asleep upstairs.
A dishwasher ran in the kitchen.
Gabriel had been complaining about a contractor.
Mia told him to shut up.
He asked how.
She showed him.
Afterward they stared at each other.
Gabriel said, “That was reckless.”
Mia laughed so hard she had to sit down.
They did not rush after that.
Gabriel had spent too much of his life mistaking possession for protection.
Mia refused to become either.
She kept her apartment.
Her company.
Her friends.
Her choices.
Gabriel learned that loving somebody did not mean building walls around them.
It meant standing near enough that they could reach for you.
If they chose.
On a Sunday afternoon in August, Leo took his first steps.
Everyone missed the first one.
He was standing beside the porch table while Mia cut strawberries.
Gabriel was fixing the grill.
Marco was arguing on the phone.
Leo released the chair.
One step.
Then another.
Mia gasped.
“Gabriel.”
He turned.
Leo wobbled.
Gabriel dropped the grill tongs.
“Leo.”
The baby grinned.
Then took three more uncertain steps toward him.
Gabriel crouched.
Leo fell into his arms.
The entire yard erupted.
Mia clapped.
Marco shouted.
Gabriel lifted Leo and laughed.
Pure.
Uncontrolled.
For a second Mia imagined Daniel standing somewhere nearby.
Not literally.
She wasn’t sentimental that way.
But the moment felt complete in a way the previous year never had.
Gabriel kissed Leo’s head.
“You did it.”
Leo responded by grabbing his nose.
Mia walked closer.
“You’re crying.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Smoke.”
“The grill isn’t lit.”
Gabriel glared.
Mia kissed his cheek.
“Definitely crying.”
Later, when everyone had gone inside, Gabriel remained on the porch.
Mia joined him.
The sun had dropped behind the trees.
Leo slept inside.
“Quiet,” Mia said.
Gabriel nodded.
He held an envelope.
She noticed.
“What’s that?”
He handed it to her.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel.
Gabriel.
Much younger.
Standing beside an old fishing boat.
Daniel was laughing.
Gabriel looked annoyed.
On the back Daniel had written something years earlier.
Someday I’m going to teach this idiot to enjoy his life.
Mia smiled.
“He was persistent.”
“Yes.”
“You miss him.”
“Every day.”
Gabriel looked toward the house.
“But it hurts differently now.”
Mia leaned against the railing.
“How?”
He thought.
“Before, every good thing felt like something he should have had.”
Mia waited.
“Now?”
“Now some of them feel like things he left.”
She looked at him.
That was the closest Gabriel ever came to poetry.
She decided not to embarrass him by mentioning it.
He put the photograph away.
“Mia.”
“Hm?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
He ignored that.
“The Lake Forest house.”
“What about it?”
“I want to finish it.”
She smiled.
“The crib?”
“All of it.”
“You hate suburbs.”
“I hate some suburbs.”
“You said people who own lawn sprinklers have surrendered.”
“I was younger.”
“You said it eight months ago.”
Gabriel sighed.
Mia laughed.
“What are you saying?”
He looked toward the house.
“This place was Daniel’s idea.”
“Yes.”
“I thought finishing it would feel like living inside his plan.”
“And now?”
“I think plans can change owners.”
Mia’s expression softened.
Gabriel looked at her.
“I want Leo to have somewhere normal.”
“That’s ambitious considering his uncle.”
“Very funny.”
“And?”
“And I want you here.”
There it was.
No command.
No assumption.
Just truth.
Mia looked at him.
“Here as what?”
Gabriel hesitated.
That alone made her heart ache.
He was good at threatening men.
Good at buying companies.
Good at walking into dangerous rooms.
This terrified him.
“As whatever you want.”
Mia smiled slowly.
“That answer took you six months.”
“I wanted to get it right.”
“You usually just decide things.”
“I’m learning.”
“You are.”
Gabriel reached into his pocket.
Mia stared.
“Oh, no.”
He froze.
“No?”
“Are you proposing?”
“I was considering it.”
“Considering?”
“I had a speech.”
“You have a speech?”
“Yes.”
“This I need to hear.”
Gabriel looked offended.
“You’re ruining it.”
“I’m improving it.”
He pulled out a small ring box.
Mia’s humor vanished.
Gabriel opened it.
Simple.
Elegant.
Nothing enormous.
She appreciated that.
“I spent most of my life believing the safest thing was to need nobody,” he said.
Mia said nothing.
“I was wrong.”
His voice roughened.
“Daniel knew it before I did. You knew it before I did.”
Mia’s eyes filled.
Gabriel continued.
“I can’t promise normal.”
“Obviously.”
“I can promise I won’t make decisions for you.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll try not to make decisions for you.”
“Better.”
“I can promise Leo will always have a home.”
Mia looked through the window.
The baby slept against Marco’s shoulder while somebody cleaned the kitchen.
Gabriel continued.
“And I can promise that if you choose me, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to deserve the choice.”
Mia stared at him.
For once she had no sarcastic answer.
Gabriel swallowed.
“Mia Carver, will you marry me?”
She let him wait three seconds.
Mostly because Gabriel Romano had never waited patiently for anything in his life.
Then she smiled.
“Yes.”
He exhaled.
“That took too long.”
“It was three seconds.”
“It was excessive.”
She laughed as he slid the ring onto her finger.
Then she kissed him.
Inside the house Leo woke.
He immediately started crying.
Mia pulled away.
“Your nephew has timing.”
“Our nephew.”
The words slipped out naturally.
Both of them stopped.
Mia looked at Gabriel.
He looked stunned.
Then softer than she had ever seen him.
“Our nephew,” he repeated.
They went inside together.
A year later, the finished crib Daniel had started stood in a bright room overlooking the trees.
Leo had already outgrown it.
Gabriel refused to throw it away.
Mia suggested storing it.
Gabriel claimed it was historically significant.
She called him ridiculous.
He agreed.
The Romano Family Trust opened its third center.
Mia’s forensic accounting firm expanded to twelve employees.
Gabriel still made intimidating phone calls.
Marco still complained.
Leo learned to say “Gabe” before he learned “uncle,” which irritated Gabriel for exactly two days before he started bragging about it.
The city still knew Gabriel Romano’s name.
Some people still feared him.
He no longer cared much.
One rainy evening, Mia found him standing by the penthouse windows with Leo asleep against his chest.
The scene stopped her.
It looked almost like the night everything began.
Dark city.
Rain.
Gabriel in black.
Leo sleeping.
Only now there was no blood.
No screaming.
No guards waiting for another attack.
Mia walked over.
Gabriel looked at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re staring.”
“I’m allowed.”
He shifted Leo carefully.
Mia rested her head against Gabriel’s shoulder.
Below them, Chicago moved beneath a thousand lights.
There had been a time when Gabriel believed the city was something to control.
A territory.
A battlefield.
A collection of debts, threats and promises.
Now the most important things in his life fit inside one quiet room.
A sleeping child.
A woman who once drove through a wooden warehouse gate because everyone had made the mistake of assuming she was nobody.
And the memory of a brother who, even after death, had somehow managed to force Gabriel toward the life he never had the courage to choose for himself.
Mia looked at Leo.
“He looks like Daniel.”
Gabriel nodded.
“He does.”
“You think Daniel would like how things turned out?”
Gabriel looked down at his nephew.
Then at Mia.
For the first time, the question did not hurt.
“Yes.”
He kissed her forehead.
“I think he’d say it took me long enough.”
Mia smiled.
“He’d be right.”
Gabriel looked offended.
“You never even met him.”
“I know enough.”
“From who?”
“You.”
Outside, thunder rolled softly across the lake.
Leo slept through it.
Gabriel wrapped his free arm around Mia.
And the man who once believed protecting his family meant making the entire city afraid finally understood what Daniel had been trying to tell him all along.
Family was never the empire.
Never the name.
Never the buildings, contracts or money men killed each other trying to keep.
It was this.
Someone trusting you enough to fall asleep in your arms.
Someone standing beside you even after seeing the worst parts of you.
Someone small learning to walk toward you because they believed you would catch them.
Gabriel had spent half his life building walls.
Mia had walked straight through them.
May you like
And this time, he left the door open.
THE END
