Bratva Boss’s Secret Triplets by Bella King

Epilogue

April

One year after my grand mafia adventure, the triplets have been born, and while I’m endlessly exhausted on a nearly inhuman level, I feel privileged to fall asleep next to Rebel every night. He holds me close, and I nearly dissolve at his touch despite having his hands on me nearly constantly.

Seeing Rebel with the babies is so endearing that I feel like my chest will cave in from all the weight. He’s done his best to maintain his bad-boy persona, but as soon as it’s just us and the kids, he relaxes into somebody I never thought he could be before the babies were born. It’s like becoming a father had healed the part of him that needed to be bitter and relentless.

Having all of the babies and Rebel at the same time feels like the universe is giving back what I was never able to have growing up. There’s a warmth in a complete family that I can’t explain, but have longed for deeply since I was a child.

This is the feeling I had the first time I ever took a drink of whiskey when I was a teen; it completed me, it made me aware of the fact that I exist and can feel something other than resentment and loneliness.

Rebel still hasn’t told me much about his family or his life, but what he has told me has made me feel fortunate that he hasn’t felt the need to embellish.

Some of the things he’s said haunt me, especially now with the babies. They’re so precious and small, I can’t imagine them having to grow up to the kind of life that Rebel had.

I suppose that at that point, anybody would try their hand at organized crime. I’ve come to understand a great deal about Rebel, and something I would have never considered before is the fact that going hungry hurts.

Being cold all the time because your heat is shut off hurts. Not having the medicine you need for your sick sibling hurts. So many people choose to undermine the struggles that bring people into a life like Rebel’s, and then they turn around and refuse to help.

When I was in the hospital giving birth, I could see firsthand how protective Rebel really is of me. For so long, he tried to pretend that he didn’t really care, that I was just a liability to his work and that I was in his way. But during the birth, he did everything he could to make sure I had everything I needed, even if it was a little excessive at times. I know most of my nurses hated him because he was so untrusting of everybody who tried to touch me for any reason, from phlebotomists to doctors to everyone in between.

There was a brief moment when we thought there might be some kind of complication with the birth, and Rebel panicked more than I did. He was ready to punch the doctor in the face when he suggested a c-section, completely emotionally activated and misunderstanding the entire procedure as it was explained to him.

As terrifying as a c-section would have been for three babies at once, Rebel’s overreaction was actually very sweet. I know he would take on the pain of birth for me three times over if he could.

After I had finally given birth, the babies were taken away to be cleaned, and I was so exhausted that I could hardly see straight. When I opened my eyes though, all I wanted to see was Rebel and the babies. He has such a magnetism to him that even in my completely physically and mentally drained state, I wanted to lock eyes with him without blinking just so I could really take him in.

Seeing him hold the babies later on was almost too much for me to handle. I’ve never wanted to be with someone so badly in my entire life, and here he is, obsessed with me and his children like I’ve never seen anybody before.

He treats me like his queen now. I have practically everything I could ever want. The days of worrying about my mother’s ring are behind me, and now I live in almost constant excess like I never thought I could.

I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that everything would work out, that the most unlikely hero would come into my life and save the day, but I doubt I would’ve believed it. Even now, it seems impossible that I’m living this life, like a beautiful dream that could end at any moment.

But that’s why I live it all fully. I’m safe with Rebel, he’s made sure of that, but there’s always the possibility that something could go wrong, so I appreciate every moment I have with him.

James, the one who looks the most like Rebel, is wrapped around my feet, rolling around on the ground and trying to stick anything he can find into his little mouth. There’s nothing on the floor there, but I bend down to look just in case, taking a break from my iced tea to check on him.

He looks up at me with a smile, amused by just about anything at this point in his life. It’s funny to see another human being discovering life for the first time. Everything to them is so pure and incredible. It makes me feel more at peace with the world, sharing in James’ and the other triplets’ wonder.

Rebel emerges from the house, joining me on the porch with the other two boys in his strong arms, Oliver and Vladimir. Rebel insisted on giving at least one of them a Russian name.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” Rebel says with a smile, bouncing the two babies in his arms. “Let me know when you’re done with your tea though. I’ll get you another one. It’s damn hot outside.”

“Not as hot as you,” I say with a wink, standing up and scooping James up from my feet. “Let’s go inside. I’m actually pretty hungry.”

“After you, my dear,” he says, stepping back to let me into the house. If he didn’t have both the babies in his arms, I know he’d be slapping my ass. My pregnancy and childbirth haven’t changed a damn thing about the way he behaves around me. If anything, he’s obsessed with me more, and I love it.

I walk into the house, the smell of Rebel’s cooking making my stomach growl in anticipation. I’m ready to eat.

The End.