Epilogue

Epilogue
Third person

“Are you sure this is the right spot?” Zion asked Asher skeptically, while Sophie stared at the small two-story, down-weatherboard suburban home with the white picket fence in the middle of a quiet street full of young families.

“Yes, husband, this is it. This is the address,” Sophie responded, looking at the crumpled paper again. The coordinates on the paper led straight to this house. A house that was not on any public records; there was no official address in any database. It was a mere three hours from them by car.

It was six months since the proposal, and four months ago, the four of them had a beautiful private ceremony at a French chateau in the suburbs of Paris. They had come to that same villa to celebrate Sophie’s birthday, and she fell in love with it. So the guys, being the love-sick puppies they are, bought it for her immediately and gifted it to her as part of her birthday celebrations. It was no surprise when Sophie wanted to have her wedding there. It was magical, and the house was like a French-style Disney castle.

Sophie wore a beautiful Vera Wang original that hugged all her curves and a twenty-foot veil with lace trim. The men wore tuxes, and they were married under fairy lights. The dogs were the ring-pups, and Landon walked her down the little aisle.

They had a Catholic and Orthodox Priest, a Jewish Rabbis, a Protestant Pastor, a Buddhist Monk, and a Wiccan priestess. They incorporated traditions from everyone. They stepped on glass, jumped over a broomstick, walked around an altar wearing crowns, and received blessings with sacred oils. They danced the night away in their perfect little garden, the four of them and their closest guards and allies.
Prior to the wedding, they signed a very unusual prenup. Sophie’s birthright would be Sophie’s alone to claim. Should she want to claim the Empire, she would be Queen, and they would support her and be her Consorts. Should she wish to the treasures, if found, they were hers and hers alone. The men would not claim a single penny. There would be no divorce, considering the nature of their lives. However, they did put in several clauses ensuring Sophie and any children would be protected and cared for at all times.

On their wedding night, the men showered her with jewels and an art studio and gallery. Her first show would be in one month. Sophie, in turn, gave them two gifts: a very provocative boudoir photo shoot album that included many scandalous pictures of various apparatuses from their red room. There was also a little box that would change their future forever. They were all blissfully happy and spent nine days secluded in the mansion for their honeymoon, never leaving their bed except for meals.

Sophie took the four steps up to the front door, the wood beneath her feet creaking with the weight. She took the key from her pocket, the same key that was attached to the note found in the old chamber all those months prior. She looked down and rubbed her growing baby bump, smiling. The twins inside her belly were rolling around inside, equally excited about what was behind the door.

She twisted the lock, and it opened with ease. The door was a little stuck, and she was hit with a face full of dust. She stepped aside to let Asher, Zion, and the guards sweep the whole house.

“Clear!” was heard throughout the abandoned house. There was no furniture, and a layer of dust was everywhere. You could see the footprints left by all the men securing the home.

“Come in, little dove. Watch your step,” Asher said, guiding Sophie by the hand over the threshold.

“Alright, listen up. I don’t know what we are meant to find here, but it would not be easy if my grandparents had anything to do with it. Look for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. Or look for this symbol,” Sophie said, showing the ancient crest of her necklace that she had printed out and blown up for everyone to see. “Check the walls for hidden panels, loose floorboards, anything. We will not take a chance even if you don’t think it is anything.”

“Yes, my queen,” the guards answered in unison. Ever since her marriage to the Mafia King of The Americas, the guards refuse to call her anything else.

For the next two hours, the entire company scoured the property. There were seven potential clues, and soon, there were several holes in the walls, and half the floor upstairs was ripped out. Just when Sophie was giving up, she passed the staircase once more and noticed a small ripple in the tacky yellow wallpaper. It was the only spot on the whole wall that was coming off. She studied it for a moment and followed her gut. She pulled on the edge and soon revealed a small panel with the crest.

“I found something!” she called out. Asher and Zion, along with many of the guards, came bounding a foot. Asher removed the panel using his knife, and it revealed a vault lock—the ones with dials like in the old Westerns, but it went to one hundred.

Sophie’s eyes widened when she put the pieces together. She pulled the paper from her pocket again and whispered, “Could it really be that simple?”

On the back of the note, there was writing that said, “Sophie is the key.” It was the same thing her mother had said to her brothers when she died.

She began to twist the lock—six times to the right, once all the way around to the left, then finding the last number. It was her birthday. Sophie was the key. The lock clicked, and the door popped open a smidge. It
took three men to pull the door out, as it was a stainless steel vault like you would see in the Federal Reserve or a grand bank.

A set of concrete stairs went down five stories before reaching another door. The lock was the same shape as her necklace, and the ancient crest was painted on the door. Sophie opened that door, much like the one in the cave, and it, too, clicked open to reveal another top-grade steel vault door. The lights flickered on as Sophie stepped into the space. Her eyes began to water instantly as the weight of the entire world became real.

They were in a large carved-out room, more prominent than a football field in both width and length. Rows of priceless artifacts and statues lined the carefully placed shelves. Every item was cataloged and had a resting place. Crates were meticulously labeled. Some items date back to before the Romans: weapons, pottery, scrolls, tools, and barrels of gold, silver, other precious metals, and priceless spices. In the middle of the room was a temperature-controlled glass case.

Resting on a purple cushion was what looked like a giant Faberge egg or more like a decorated ostrich egg. It was covered with the rarest minerals- hundreds of carats worth of red diamonds worth two million a carat, blue garnets worth over a million per carat, some of the largest clear rubies ever seen, which could easily fetch millions, and hundreds of what was noted as lava yellow diamonds that would also fetch staggering numbers. The intricate carvings were overlaid with melted gold. It was appraised by an expert to be worth over three billion dollars from twenty years prior, making the evaluation even greater.

In the next glass, there were over two hundred carats of pure jadeite, as the current market is about three million per carat. That alone would fetch could fetch at least six billion at auction.

In the final case, there lay a medallion that looked like it had been handcrafted from the finest gold and looked so frail. It was the Roman Royal seal—the same crest that was on all the boxes, the cave door, her necklace, and the key. This was her birthright. Inside, the medallion was said to contain the DNA from each of the original families.

“This is incredible,” Asher exclaimed.

“Yes, it is,” Sophie replied, taking it all in. Her hand finds the baby bump once more.

“This is all yours, Sophie. What are you going to do?” Zion asked, kissing her cheek.

“Hmmm. We are keeping this here for now. And I think we are going home. We will grab Daddy from his meeting, and I want you to worship my body, treating me like the queen I am!” Sophie said triumphantly. Asher and Zion looked at each other before bowing dramatically.

“As you wish, your Imperial Majesty,” they said before Zion picked her up and rushed out of the warehouse. They barely closed the car door before the guys began to show their Queen how magnificent she was.


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Authors Note
Thank you so much for reading Forbidden Desires. I truly appreciate each of you who have stuck with me during the ups and downs and all the comments and feedback. Your support has been invaluable to me.
Please stay tuned, as this book is not truly over. I will be releasing several alternative endings very soon for your enjoyment. Please note that some parts of a chapter may be the same as previously read or very similar and tweaked slightly to fit the new narrative. I will place an in the chapter title if it is the same chapter as the one previously read. If there is an alternative ending you want to see, let me know, and I may just be able to make it happen.
You can also check out my other works, The Four Mafia Men and Their Prize (and its ongoing sequel, The Ultimate Prize) and The Dragon Kings and the Prophecy.
Several new books are in the works and hopefully will begin publishing early next year.
Follow me on Instagram @authormc for more updates.