“I don’t remember,” he answered. “Just that it was before I went to see Valerie. I remember being impressed that she knew and approved of it.”
With her back to him, Christy continued, “I remember talking with Ginny years ago and telling her I envied her conscience. Grizz tried to protect her from the things he did because she was so sensitive.” She scoffed before adding, “I always thought it was kind of sad that he never had the chance to give up his life of crime to prove his love. And you made that same offer to me, and I didn’t want you to. Crazy, huh?” She didn’t expect him to answer.
She swung around and gave him a level look. “I was in the bathroom and heard you the night you cut off that man’s head at the Glades Motel. I didn’t flinch once. When you told me that you tortured and murdered the man who tried to rape me at your camp, you could’ve been telling me you just changed the oil in your truck. Not to mention all the things you’ve done over the years that I’ve known about.”
“So, what are you trying to say, Christy?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just trying to let you know that marrying you wasn’t the burden you think it was. To an outsider, we’ve always looked like opposites. You know, the criminal and the heiress?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “The Jolly Green Giant and the little sprout,” she laughed. “But I think we were more alike back then than we realized. And we’ve changed for the better.”
“Well, at least you have,” he told her. He smiled at her then. Not a small smile, but one that was so wide it made his dimple look like a cavern.
She approached him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. Looking up into his eyes, she added, “You didn’t kill Ben Diamond when you had the chance.”
“Don’t give me too much credit, Owani,” he corrected. “I didn’t kill him, but I messed him up good. Then I realized that death would’ve been too merciful. So, I consigned him to a fate that I thought was worse than death. I left him in prison with Grizz. I’m sure his life was torture for the five years that led up to Grizz’s death. Maybe even still is since Grizz had so many loyal followers in prison.”
“You were given a chance to do the right thing by not killing him, Anthony, and you took it,” she said into his shirt.
“I didn’t let him live because killing him would’ve been wrong. I haven’t found the…what do you call it?” He paused. “I haven’t found the moral compass that you found.”
“And having children hasn’t changed you?” she asked without looking up.
“Of course it has, Owani. It’s made me more cautious, but that’s about it. I have a wife and family to consider now. Just because I chose not to kill Ben Diamond doesn’t mean I wasn’t capable of it,” he told her, his voice hard. “That I’m not still capable of it.” Anthony may have walked away from Camp Sawgrass, loansharking and his other criminal activities, but he’d stayed well connected. He was just less visible due to his family life.
As if not hearing him, she said, “If I could go back and change—”
He knew what she was going to say and he shushed her. “It’s okay, baby,” he said.
“I tried to fix it, make it right, but it was too late. There was no going back.” Her voice was barely a whisper, and she hugged him tighter. “A deal was a deal and no amount of money could reverse what I’d done.”
“The fact that you tried is what matters, Christy,” he said as he softly stroked her hair. He decided it was time to change the subject, so he pulled back and, looking down into her face, he said, “Maybe we should save the iron tiara for the woman who Christian falls in love with. I have a feeling she’ll need it.” He gave a nod toward his workbench.
Already knowing the girl who held Christian’s heart, Christy replied in a lighter tone, “You might be right, but I’m pretty sure she’ll be coming into her own soon. I have no doubt that she’ll be strong enough to handle Christian without the tiara.”
Her face got serious then and she said, “I remember when I used to look into your eyes and was afraid because I didn’t think I could see anything. It was so hard to read you back then.”
“And now, Owani?” he asked, his voice tender.
“Now, I see myself in your eyes. You’re the better half of my soul, Anthony,” Christy told him, her eyes misty.
“You have it backwards, honey. You’re the better half of this marriage.”
He took her face in his hands and looked down into her eyes. “Two hearts connected by strands of gold. My heart you will always hold. Safe by my side, you will always be. My forever love, you belong to me.” He tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear. “Not bad for an eight-year-old,” he teased as fond memories of Nisha’s game warmed his heart.
“When did you know you loved me, Anthony? Was it the day you took me from Vivian’s bedroom?” she asked, breathlessly. “Or the day you made the iron tiara?”
“No, Owani. It wasn’t the day I took you.”
She looked at him sideways, her eyes bright.
“It was the day I knew I needed to own your heart forever.” He kissed her tenderly on the forehead. Pulling back, he gave her a mischievous wink. “The same day I decided that you belonged to me.”
Epilogue
South America 2003
The old man lay on his tattered bed and stared at the roof of the thatched hut he’d called home for almost twenty-five years. The spatterings on the threadbare blanket that now covered him were evidence that a creature had taken up residence somewhere in the rafters of his dilapidated hut. It wouldn’t have been the first time, but he was too broken and weak to care.
He’d prayed every night to any god that might hear him for a quick and merciful death. He’d spent every day for more than twenty years barely existing. When he first arrived at the compound, he couldn’t understand what his captors were saying as they spoke in a language he didn’t recognize. But after meeting some of the other men who were also held against their will it became apparent, and his life quickly turned into a nightmare he couldn’t wake from.
He’d been sentenced to life without parole in a camp that was specifically designed to imprison people who’d committed heinous crimes and escaped prosecution under the law. There were men here from all over the world, and they were all provided barely enough to keep them alive.