Never the Same

Chapter 39 - Epilogue

"Easy there, Cassandra. You're starting to sound more like Luca here." She looks at me and flutters her lashes at me. "Now, where do we stand on my daughter?"

"You don't have a daughter, Nadia." My next words are going to hit home for her and I can't wait to use them. I didn't plan on saying my next statement but I don't care. If it's going to remove that smirk from her face, I'm going for it. "Kaylee and I have a daughter. You don't."

Her smirk falls and she stops fluttering her lashes, face falling blank before it changes to anger. "No. You can't do this to me. I have rights and I will use them!"

"You gave them up when you tried to murder people and hurt his daughter," Cassandra defends.

"She is still my daughter, too." Nadia screams.

"She is not!" I retaliate strongly, feeling myself getting drawn into her petty game. I take a step back, close my eyes, and breathe deeply. She's not going to get the better of me this way. I'm better than that, stronger than that. I know better than this. I don't need this, and certainly not today. I open my eyes and I spot the small smirk on her lips that's daring to reach the surface. "Nadia, I'm going to tell you something that will cause chills to run through you so you better take my words in loud and clear and make them stick."

She waits.

I lean down, placing both hands on the table, and look at her directly. "If you ever try to come for any member of my family, including my kids, then you are going to wish that you had made an enemy with the devil himself than with me."

She stares at me long and hard to see if I'm bluffing but I'm not, and she knows it. I'll make her life a living nightmare if she even makes an attempt to do anything that involves my family. Finally, after letting my words sink into her thick skull, her eyes narrow slightly and she presses her lips firmly together. "Finally did it then, I see. You finally knocked her up and got everything you've ever wanted. And what do I get? I get to rot away in a dingy prison cell with nothing!"

Cassandra pulls at my arm and I step back. "Maybe if you're lucky enough, you'll get a nice window in your cell when they transfer you to an American prison for trying to kill your ex-husband over there."

"Mr. Madden," a prison officer calls, "your visiting time is up."

Cassandra and I back away from the window, keeping our gazes on Nadia who is fuming at us for what we've just said to her.

"I'll be expecting those papers signed by the end of the day," Cassandra says, getting in the final word before we leave the room. "Now that is done, you can look forward to your wedding and the future with a clear mind."

"Definitely," I agree.

I think ahead to tomorrow and can't help but smile. I'm only one flight away from seeing Kaylee before our wedding when I get to call her Mrs. Madden. I'm only hours away from one of the biggest days of my life and I can't wait. Inside, I'm like a kid in a toy shop finding it hard to contain my excitement. I now know what my kids are like when I tell them they can have anything they want when we enter a toy shop.

Normally, I'm good with being the centre of attention. On a few occasions throughout the years, I've had to stand in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands, and give a speech about whatever it is I'm there for. All of those times have been work-related and the persona I have for work is worlds away from the one I have when I'm with my family and friends.

Today, though . . . today is completely different.

It's not every day that I marry the love of my life. Not every day that after a two-year engagement, I get to finally call Kaylee Mrs. Kaylee Madden. It's a day that I've wished for over and over again for years and I'm so happy it's finally coming true today.