Chapter 15 - THE FAMILY WE CHOSE
The gunshot echoed.
I screamed.
But the bullet never reached Fern.
Stellan moved faster than anyone.
He pushed me and Fern away.
And the bullet hit him.
"No!"
I dropped beside him.
For one terrifying second...
I thought I had lost him.
Again.
Like Adrian.
Like everyone I loved.
"Stellan."
His eyes opened slowly.
"I'm okay."
"You got shot."
"I've survived worse."
I cried.
"Why do you always do that?"
He looked confused.
"Do what?"
"Try to save everyone."
A weak smile appeared.
"Because nobody saved you."
My heart broke.
Across the room, my father stood frozen.
Evelyn had knocked the weapon away.
Security rushed in.
This time...
the war ended.
Not with revenge.
Not with blood.
With the truth.
The documents from the basement destroyed Theodore's empire.
The people who helped him were arrested.
The Cross family secrets finally came into the light.
And my father?
He disappeared into the system that he spent years controlling.
Months passed.
Slowly...
life became normal.
Or as normal as life could be after surviving a mafia war.
Fern grew stronger.
Healthier.
Happier.
And Stellan?
He changed.
Not completely.
He was still Stellan Cross.
Still intimidating.
Still dangerous when someone threatened his family.
But with Fern...
he was different.
He learned how to make bottles.
Badly.
Very badly.
He learned bedtime stories.
His first attempt was a business report.
Fern hated it.
I laughed for the first time in years.
A real laugh.
One night, I found him sitting beside Fern's crib.
Just watching her sleep.
"You know she can't hear you thinking."
He looked back.
"I missed a lot."
I sat beside him.
"Yes."
He nodded.
"I know."
The honesty still surprised me.
After everything...
he never stopped admitting his mistakes.
"I don't expect you to forget."
I looked at him.
"Good."
A small smile appeared.
"But I want you to know something."
"What?"
He looked at Fern.
"She was the first thing that ever made me want a different life."
My heart softened.
"Stellan."
He looked at me.
"Not Cross."
I smiled slightly.
"Adrian."
For a moment...
he looked like the man I met in the rain.
The man who loved me before the world knew his name.
Years ago, I thought the greatest lie of my life was believing he abandoned me.
I was wrong.
The greatest lie was believing I had to survive alone.
Because sometimes...
the person who breaks your heart is also the person who helps put it back together.
And sometimes...
the family you are born into destroys you.
While the family you choose...
saves you.
Years later, Fern asked me a question.
"Mommy, was Daddy always scary?"
I looked across the room.
At the man who once ruled Chicago with fear.
Now sitting on the floor, letting a little girl put stickers on his expensive suit.
I smiled.
"No."
"Then what was he?"
I watched Stellan laugh as Fern placed another sticker on his jacket.
And I answered:
"He was a good man who forgot he was allowed to be one."
The girl who was never supposed to survive...
grew up surrounded by love.
The mafia boss who never believed he deserved happiness...
finally found it.
May you like
And the woman who spent years running from the truth...
finally came home.
