Chapter 173

Chapter 173
Vincenzo called me into his office with a tone that was too calm for someone who was clearly hiding something. He asked Nancy to be responsible for Rafael—which, let's face it, was a very dangerous combination—but I decided to trust him. Or pretend to trust him. Sometimes, you just choose to believe because you don't have the energy to argue.

I walked beside him through the mansion's corridors, mentally dodging crooked paintings and vases that now only existed in my memory. I crossed my arms and shook my head.

"Are you really going to let them wreck the whole house?"

Vincenzo opened the office door as if nothing in the world could shake him.

"The house will survive," he replied, entering. "I have something more important to take care of now than Nancy's daydreams."

"That was the most dangerous sentence I've ever heard," I murmured, following him.

He closed the door behind us and turned, leaning on the desk. His eyes were different. Softer. More… full. “Tonight, I have a special surprise for you.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine. Not from fear. From anticipation. With Vincenzo, surprises always came with intensity.

“Should I be happy or worried?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smiled slightly.

“Both.”

I crossed my arms again, but now smiling.

“That didn’t answer anything.”

“It wasn’t meant to answer,” he said. “It was meant to provoke.”

I took a deep breath, trying not to show how curious this made me. Vincenzo moved away from the table and began to walk around the office, as if organizing invisible thoughts.

“I’m going to stay with Rafael today,” he said. “We need to talk. Really. He’s been through things no child should have to go through. A few games aren’t going to organize everything that’s going on inside his head.”

My heart tightened.

“I know,” I replied, more quietly. “You’re going to be amazing with him.” He stopped. He looked at me with a silent intensity.

"I hope so."

There was a brief silence between us, the kind that doesn't weigh you down. The kind that comforts you.

"That's why," he continued, "I want you and Nancy to have princess-like hours. New dresses. Spa. Everything you want. I want you to relax. To feel… cared for."

I stood still. Literally speechless.

"Vincenzo…" I began, but the words wouldn't come.

He frowned slightly.

"What is it? You don't want to?"

Instead of answering, I turned and started walking towards the door, feeling a smile grow on my face without asking permission. A restrained, emotional, almost shy smile.

"Rachel," he called. "What is it?"

I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. I took a deep breath before looking at him.

“In the end…” I said slowly, “what you really lacked wasn’t peace, nor redemption… it was a child.”

For a second, Vincenzo said nothing.

Then he smiled.

Not that dangerous smile. Nor the controlled one. But an open, almost disarming smile, as if something inside him had finally found its place.

“Maybe you’re right,” he replied. “Maybe it’s always been that.”

I opened the door, but before leaving he added, in a practical tone:

“Be back before ten o’clock tonight.”

I laughed.

“Is that a curfew?”

“It’s a request,” he said. “And a warning.”

“I’ll need to take Nancy to a dentist first,” I replied, already leaving. “She lost a tooth in an epic battle against a roof.”

“Of course she did,” he murmured, laughing.

I left the office laughing to myself, feeling something light in my chest. It wasn’t just happiness. It was the feeling of being exactly where I should be. In the distance, I heard Rafael's laughter mixed with Nancy's exaggeratedly dramatic voice. I sighed, already anticipating the chaos.

But, for the first time, the chaos didn't scare me.

It felt… like home.

I called out to Rafael, my voice still choked with emotion that I wasn't even trying to hide anymore. He was sitting on the floor, panting, with the pan tilted on his head and the spoon raised as if he were still in the middle of an imaginary battle.

"Hey, champ…" I said, crouching in front of him and extending my hand. "Your father is waiting for you in the office."

His eyes shone. Not that agitated gleam of a mischievous child, but something deeper. Something secure.

He took my hand and stood up carefully, as if he were still testing his own body after everything he had been through. I extended my other hand, firm, sweet.

"Can I have the sword and helmet for now?"

Without hesitation, he handed me the spoon and the pan, with a silent confidence that squeezed my heart in an almost painful way. Before leaving, he turned to Nancy.

"Bye," he said, opening his arms.

Nancy froze for a split second. Then she awkwardly bent down, hugging him with far too much care for someone who normally broke everything he touched.

"Come back in one piece, little warrior," she said, giving him an exaggerated little kiss on the cheek.

Rafael laughed.

Then he came to me.

He hugged me tightly. Too tightly.

For a seven-year-old boy. As if saying without words: don't go.

"Go on," I whispered, kissing his cheek. "I'm here."

He smiled, gave me another quick kiss, and ran off toward the office. The door closed behind him with a soft, almost respectful sound.

I stood there for a few seconds.

Nancy broke the silence.

"I already love this boy."

I let out a breath slowly. Tears came uninvited.

"Me too," I replied. "With everything I have."

I held out my hand to her. Nancy looked at my hand as if it were a sacred invitation.

"Rest?" I asked.

Her eyes sparkled. Literally.

"Rest like… a shopping spree, a spa, a foot massage, hot stones, a beauty salon, beautiful people serving me flavored water and telling me I'm special?"

"Exactly that kind of rest."

She held my hand tightly.

"I knew that surviving an international kidnapping had its advantages."

I laughed through tears. A light laugh. Liberating.

As we climbed the stairs to change clothes before leaving, something inside me finally clicked. It wasn't just relief. It was understanding.

Life has a cruel, ironic, and profoundly unfair way of stripping us of everything… only to then clothe us with what truly matters.

I couldn't ask for a better friend than Nancy. Chaotic, unpredictable, loyal to the bone. A kind of love that doesn't ask permission to exist.

I couldn't ask for a more complex, more intense, and more dedicated man than Vincenzo. A man who bled for past mistakes, but who now learned, day after day, to love without dominating, to protect without suffocating.

And I couldn't ask for a sweeter, braver, and more loving son than Rafael. A boy who, even after everything, still knew how to smile. Still knew how to trust.

I was rich.

But money was, without a doubt, the least of my possessions.

I had something much greater.

Family.

Problems would still come. Challenges too. Scars don't disappear like magic. But, for the first time, I wasn't afraid of the future.

Because, regardless of what came, I knew:

I wouldn't be alone.

And that… that changes everything.