33
Bea
To say it was a complicated time for the next several weeks was an understatement. There was the whole matter of ensuring that Damon was left alone by the courts, at the same time as ensuring that he wouldn’t become a victim of any mafia reprisals, all the while looking to take the small and sensitive steps required in order to get my parents to understand and accept who he was. This had to be accomplished in unison with my own family wounds healing—ones that had been festering for years—as well as moving back in and starting the planning for a new member of the family in a few months’ time.
Then there was also the prospect of deciding how to manage my college degree, my internship and my future career—all of which would have been a massive challenge at any time but, because of how well publicized my ordeal was, had to also occur with a massive media frenzy going on in the background.
Considerable as these odds were, somehow everything just seemed to be so much easier than before, however, for the simple reason that my family was pulling together for a change. Not only that, I had Damon by my side…and everything would always be easier with him in my life.
A day at a time, the shattered jigsaws of our lives began to be put back together and, three months later, I was finally able to make the most of a big breath of fresh air, seeing as Damon had taken me on our first day out together since the media attention had started to die down. And where better than the boat on the lake where we’d first become lovers? It was the perfect place to be alone together, to unwind and begin looking forward to our future.
“Is there an extra curve there yet?” Damon asked, gently putting his hand on my belly as I looked out at the late afternoon sun. It was about to set, and the sky was colored with various shades of pink, purple, blue and orange.
“You know there is,” I replied. “You’re just scared to say so in case I take it to mean you’re calling me fat.”
He chuckled. “I’d never call you fat.”
“Even when I’m eight months along? That’s only a few months away, and I’m gonna look like I swallowed a beach ball,” I said.
“You’ll still be the most beautiful woman in the world to me,” he replied, squeezing my shoulder. “Beach ball stomach or not.”
I smiled, lying back in his arms as I watched the sun begin to dip in the sky. Today was the first day we’d really had the chance to fully relax, and I thought back to this morning’s good news.
The consequences of Damon’s years of being a criminal had been restricted to a severe fine for impersonating a security agent, which had been confirmed only today. He’d escaped any additional trial or threat of jail, though both of us knew this was largely due to my father’s influence. Without that, his past would almost certainly have caught up with him.
I was still in the process of tentatively allowing my parents back into my life, having told them that I wanted my child to benefit from as big and as loving a family as possible, while being headstrong about bringing it up based on my own views, rather than being pressured about doing things their way. They’d agreed to that, and said they had nothing but respect for my decision. My mother had also told me about how my father was secretly very impressed by Damon and the way that he’d saved me, in spite of accepting a future son-in-law with a criminal past being very much a contradiction, given his usual attitude towards criminals.
As for the media storm surrounding my father—that was finally dying down now that the truth had come out. It now widely known that the mafia had been behind it in an attempt to make him step down as Governor and Presidential candidate, and the supposedly leaked Internal Affairs documents had been faked. My father might’ve done a lot of wrong things in his time, but accepting kickbacks and turning a blind eye to drug smugglers wasn’t one of them.
His public reputation was safe, and—perhaps the most important development for the citizens of Florida as a whole—the attack on a politician backfired bigtime on the Carusos. Public support was behind the Governor and the police force, and two weeks after they were streaming images of me over YouTube, the mob family was the target of a major sting operation. Many of the wanted names had managed to flee interstate, or else overseas, but there had been many notable arrests too—none other than Geronimo Caruso himself, for one, who was in prison awaiting trial. He was the man who’d planned and ordered my kidnapping, along with threatening to kill Felicia if Damon ever tried to leave the mob, so the thought of him rotting behind bars didn’t exactly make me unhappy.
The Presidential campaign might have been saved, therefore, but about the time that the sting operation was in place, my father had announced on live TV that he was withdrawing his candidacy. He’d then visited me later that evening and, though he didn’t say much about the conflicts and regrets going round in his head, he managed to convince me that knowing he was having a grandchild meant he was more excited than he had been for years. He’d withdrawn from the campaign because he wanted to retire from politics and start spending some real time with his family, not for any other reason, and that made me realize that he was serious about changing.
We might’ve had some bad years, but he was trying to make up for them now, and that was worth something.
“Oh, not the candles,” I said, after turning away from the setting sun to see that Damon had begun to light a set of white candles on the boat, just as he had on the first night we’d made love.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You worried I’m trying to seduce you or something?”
I laughed and patted my belly. “Bit late for that.”
He chuckled. “True. Anyway, I just thought the candles would be a nice touch. You know, to remind us of our first night.”
“I was just thinking it couldn’t live up to the memory, though,” I replied, “but then I realized it could...”
He raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath. “I’ve got news, Damon. I was going to wait to surprise you, but now seems like the perfect moment.”
He stared at me, his eyes sparkling with interest. “What’s the news?”
“Earlier today, when I went for my scan at the doctors…I found out we’re having a little girl.”
Damon’s eyes widened, and then he embraced me, visibly overjoyed. “That’s amazing, Bea. Shit, I couldn’t be any happier right now if I tried.”
“Me too,” I replied, snuggling up to his chest.
“You have completely stolen my thunder, though,” he added.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
Instead of replying straight away, Damon got down on one knee, pulled out a jewelry box, and opened it to reveal a gorgeous diamond ring. “Bea, the reason I brought you out here tonight…I wanted to ask you a question. Will you marry me?”
I’d cried many tears since meeting Damon, given everything we’d gone through, but this time they were tears of joy.
“Oh my god…yes!” I said.
Damon grinned and slid the ring onto my left hand, and once again the two of us embraced surrounded by candlelight, just like we had on the first night we’d been here. This was our very own little spot, and right now was our very own perfect moment.
Then again, every moment with Damon was a perfect moment…