Before I start, I want to thank everyone for reading this book and sticking with me through thos tumultuous ride. I hope you guys enjoyed and will tell me what you all think of this last chapter.

15-Years-later

Aleksander ran a hand through his peppering hair, sighing to see the darkness outside before climbing up the single flight of stairs. Making his way across the hallway and passed the various bedrooms he opened the door of the one furthest away.

Pushing the double doors open, his face brightened with a smile to find his wife seated on their bed, their daughter’s head laid in her lap with Sofia combing her fingers through her tresses.

“Hello,” Aleksander greeted his wife, leaning down to give her a peck as she smiled at him before his gaze was redirected to his daughter burying her face in her mother’s stomach. “And what happened here?” He settled on the edge of the bed, gesturing to the little girl.

“From what I understand,” Sofia spoke in Italian. “Angelo took her…diary was it?”

“Book!” His daughter sprang up with a tear stained face and blotchy cheeks. “Angelo took my book which Demetrio gave to me, papa! He won’t give it back! That is my favorite books!”

“Isabella,” Aleksander sighed and pulled the eight-year-old onto his lap. “Maybe he’s borrowing it because he sees how much you like it and he wants to see what it’s all about?”

“No, he’s just being an ass,” Their daughter, Katarina, spoke with a shrug from the doorway.

“Katarina,” Sofia sighed. “Language,”

“Why should I? Papa uses this language,”

“Aleksander,” Sofia kicked her husband who grimaced. “You watch your language in front of my children!”

“Yes, yes,” He nodded and stroked Isabella’s hair. “Katarina, can you please call your elder brother?”

“Which one? I have two,”

“Angelo, baby,”

“Fine,”

The coarse reply had Aleksander raise an eyebrow and look at his wife for an understanding behind her irritation.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know what to do anymore,”

“She’s just ten,” Aleksander sighed. “And already she hates us,”

“I don’t,” Isabella looked up at her father with puffy eyes.

“Oh, my sweetheart!” He cooed and squeezed her tight in his arms.

“Maybe this is why she hates you,” A deep baritone spoke, the different voice having both Aleksander and Sofia jump before looking up to find Salvatore and Nicole standing in their doorway. “The blatant favoritism you have for your eldest and youngest,”

“Salvatore!” Aleksander put a hand to his chest and laughed breathlessly. “I do not have favorites between my own kids,”

“To an outsider it looks like you prefer Viktor and Isabella rather than Angelo and Katarina,” Salvatore stepped forward. “Funny, consider that you named both of them in memory of our parents,” He teased his younger brother.

“Ha-ha, very funny,” Aleksander stood up and hugged the Italian, Sofia and Nicole chattering to each other about motherhood before Nicole hugged Aleksander too. “What brings you guys here?”

“Oh,” Nicole looked up at her husband. “We were given marriage proposals for Victoria and Demetrio, and that just made us realize that our kids are grown up now, and we basically wanted to come someplace where the kids are still…you know…kids,”

“Marriage…” Aleksander choked out, hands on his hips and eyes wide. “But…they are-”

“-Victoria is twenty-eight and Demetrio is twenty-six,”

“Twenty-eight!” Sofia shrieked. “Fuck, where did the time go?”

“Tell me about it,” Nicole laughed breathlessly. “My baby was just eleven yesterday,”

“Oh, my God,”

“But Demetrio…” Aleksander looked up at his brother. “He’s gay, do they know that?”

“They do,” Salvatore rolled his eyes. “Supposedly, the Benza’s have a son who is either bisexual or gay and he’s interested in Demetrio since they met at some gathering,”

“What?”

“I call bullshit,” The Italian shook his head. “He just wants my boy’s birthright,”

“You think?” Aleksander scoffed.

“Well, what-” Sofia began to say before being cut off.

“-Uncle Salvatore!” Two voice exclaimed from behind them, Salvatore turning around just in time to catch Angelo and Katarina tackling him in hug. The Italian Mafia Boss laughing as he let go of Isabella’s hand. Both of them grinning up at him before hugging Nicole. “What are you guys doing here?” They gushed looking between the couple.

“Well, we are actually here to ask your parents if we could adopt you two,” Nicole winked. “You know, since you remind us so much of our own children,”

“The answer is already no,” Aleksander chuckled with a shake of his head.

“Oh, come on, you have four, you can give me two,” Salvatore spoke over his shoulder.

“Absolutely not,” The Russian laughed. “My children aren’t a commodity for trade,”

“Alright, how about I take them back to Italy with me and raise them as my wards, hmm? How does that sound? They’d still have the Romanov name, but they’d be brought up at Regnante’s,”

“Papa!” Both Angelo and Katarina whined. “Please! Say yes!”

“Salvatore, stop it,” Aleksander hit him on the shoulder. “You’re making me unpopular with my own children,”

“You were always unpopular,”

“Oh! Bullshit!”

“Aleksander! Language!”

“Sorry, baby,” He winced before turning back to his brother. “I was Salvatore Regnante’s brother. I was the epitome of popular,”

“You were nothing compared to the golden boy: me,”

“Man, you’re so old that you’ve developed amnesia,”

“Hey, you’re four years behind me,”

“When I’m your age, you’ll be sixty, Salvatore, you will have one foot in the grave by then,”

“Aleksander!” Both Nicole and Sofia exclaimed in disapproval while Salvatore simply laughed at the snarky remark. Turning around to hug his younger brother once more, patting him on the shoulder.

“God, I’ve missed you,” He laughed and placed a kiss on his temple, Aleksander feeling like a young boy once again as he buried his face in Salvatore’s shoulder. Smiling at the familiarity of it all.

“You and Viktor are always fighting like dogs, then look at papa and Uncle Salvatore. Why can’t you two be like this?” Isabella asked Angelo who just glared at her. “And thank you for the book,” She slipped it out from under his arm, marching away with it clutched to her chest.

All of them sat together at the dinner table, chattering among themselves with the children talking to their aunt and uncle, telling them all about what was going on. Each child competing for their attention, until Viktor found himself freezing in the doorway of the dining room.

“Uncle Salvatore?” He called in disbelief, eyebrows knitted at the sight of him. “Aunt Nicole,”

“Viktor,” Salvatore and Nicole grinned at the fifteen-year-old, getting up to greet him with a hug and ruffling his hair. “It’s good to see you. Wow, you’ve grown,” Nicole enthused.

“It’s good to see you guys too,” Viktor stammered. “But uh…is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Salvatore chuckled. “We just missed your dad and having little kids around, so we decided to drop by,”

“You’re saying drop by as if though you live right down the road,” Viktor chuckled uncomfortably.

“Russia is right down the road from Italy,”

“Oh, right, I forgot whom I was talking to,”

“Come on, join us for dinner,” Salvatore ruffled Viktor’s hair and led him to a dining chair.

Aleksander watched with a sad smile as Salvatore interacted with his children, all four of them shrieking with laughter, eyes bright with enthusiasm, and telling him things they normally wouldn’t share with him. Then the boys were chattering with Nicole in whispers, not letting anyone over hear what they were talking about as the Mafia Boss’s wife nodded soberly and responded in just a soft baritone as them.

After dinner, Aleksander suggested they all settle in the lounge, not having anticipated his children to follow. All four of them sitting around Nicole and Salvatore, asking the couple about their kids, and how they were faring. Then Viktor asked the Don some Mafia related questions, given that the boy was being groomed to be Pakhan.

Sofia took hold of Aleksander’s hand, giving it a squeeze to see Katarina asleep with her head on Salvatore’s lap and Angelo snoring on Nicole’s shoulder. Viktor sleeping with his head thrown back and Isabella cuddled into Angelo’s side. Salvatore combing his fingers through Katarina’s hair with Nicole and him talking in soft whispers so not to wake them.

“I’ll put them to bed,” Aleksander began to get up for his children, but froze at the response of the couple before him.

“No!” They hissed. “No, leave them like this for a while longer, I can’t remember the last time we did this with our own kids,” Salvatore sighed, seeing Victoria in the little girl asleep on his lap.

“They grew up so damn fast,” Nicole shook her head. “One minute they’re waking me up on the weekends for every little thing, next thing I know I’m seeing them off to America for Masters. Now marriage?”

“Speaking of that,” Sofia leaned forward in her seat. “What do you guys plan to do about it? Will you accept the offers?”

“It’s not our place to accept them,” Salvatore shrugged. “They came for Victoria and Demetrio. So when they come over the winter break, we’ll introduce them to each other and then let them decide what they want to do. Be it accepting the proposal or rejecting it,”

“The Benza’s have given their son’s hand for Demetrio,” Aleksander rubbed a hand over his forehead, unable to wrap his mind around the fact that the children he saw come into this world had potential suitors. “Who has stepped forward for Victoria?”

“You won’t believe me,”

“Tell me,”

“The Siciliano’s,”

“Fuck,” Aleksander’s eyes bulged out. “Armani Siciliano? That is who want to marry Victoria?”

“Yeah,”

“Wow,”

“And Demetrio?”

“GabrielBenza,”

“Gabe-” Aleksander held his head in his hands. “These are the up and coming boys in the underworld, Salvatore,”

“Nu-uh,” Nicole shook her head. “They are the up and coming men of the underworld,”

“Shit,” Sofia flopped back in her seat. “Those two as son-in-laws, wow,”

“It’s for Victoria and Demetrio to decide,” Salvatore stated in a tight voice.

“Yes, of course,” Sofia and Aleksander straightened, nodding soberly. “Speaking of kids, let’s put them to bed,”

“I got Katarina,” Salvatore assured.

“I can handle Isabella,” Nicole smiled.

“Boys, wake up,” Sofia crouched before her younger son while Aleksander shook Viktor awake.

Putting all the kids to bed, the adults settled down in the couple’s bedroom, talking about married life and children and the family before Aleksander and Salvatore got into a discussion about the underworld and recent gossip and news that had been circulating.

“When will Viktor take over?” Nicole looked up at Aleksander. “He’s your heir right?”

“Yeah,” Aleksander nodded. “He’ll take over when I die. After his bachelors I’d give him a more active role in the Bratva and take him with me to meetings and have him work with me, like Salvatore did with me.”

“Ah,”

“What about Demetrio?”

“Whenever they want,” Salvatore shrugged.

“They?”

“Both Victoria and Demetrio will take up after me,” Salvatore stretched his arms over his head. “Victoria decided she will look after the legal side of the business while Demetrio will take over the illicit side,”

“Really?” Sofia’s eyebrows raised at the words. “Their temperament seem to be for the opposite things,”

“I trust them,” Salvatore shrugged.

“A lot of faith you got there, eh, Salvi,”

“Why not? They’re my flesh and blood,”

“Nevermind,” Aleksander chuckled with a shake of his head.

“I think we’ll call it a night,” Nicole informed, taking hold of Salvatore’s hand and bidding the couple before them a good night. Leading her husband to the room they would be staying in.

Turning in for the night, Aleksander and Sofia lay staring up at the ceiling in the dark.

“Did you see how sad they looked?” Sofia murmured to her husband, turning to lay on her side.

“I guess it just knocked him over the head how much his children have grown up. I mean…these are marriage proposals from the second and third most influential Mafia families. They should have been Salvatore’s opposition, instead they are his allies and want to marry their boys to his children,”

“I have to agree with Salvatore though,”

“About what?”

“That they are just after the Regnante name,”

“I have no doubt about it. But that is exactly how Salvatore and Nicole started. Her father wanting her to get married for the Regnante name. Now look, they’ve been happily married for twenty-eight years,”

“But…” Sofia sat up in bed, turning on the lamp to look down at her husband. “I don’t have a good feeling about this,”

“I don’t know what you’re getting worked up over, baby,” Aleksander rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Right now they have just asked to be considered as suitors, nothing more. Both Demetrio and Victoria will decide what they want to do with these proposals when they come over the winter break,”

“I think they’ll reject,” Sofia turned off the lamp and snuggled under the covers. “But doesn’t this make you feel a little…I don’t know…doesn’t this make you want to spend more time with your kids? I know that after looking at Nicole’s state, I want to take every opportunity to be involved in my children’s lives,”

“You’re right,” Aleksander sighed. “You know what? Tomorrow, let’s all of us go for a picnic,”

“But what about work?”

“I’ll take the day off. What do you say?”

“The kids would love that,”

“Good,” Aleksander smiled at his wife, placing a kiss on her forehead before settling down to sleep. “Good night, Sofia,”

“Good night, Aleksander,”

Once again, thank you for reading this book and hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know what you think of this chapter, because I might change it.