Page 900 of Coal Hearts

Will my kid have it too?

I told Rachel I didn’t believe Victor’s DNA donation would have any sway over her son’s personality but perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe my DNA overpowered the goodness of Ily’s and she’s given birth to a tiny beast like me.

Those fears have echoed long past my daughter’s birth.

Watching Ily labour almost sent me into cardiac arrest. If it hadn’t been for Q and Peter getting me drunk, I probably would’ve been admitted into a hospital bed beside hers.

And the moment they placed little Priti into my arms, I was her slave for life.

There isn’t any man I won’t kill. No monster I won’t slay.

She’s my little fireheart and I’m meant to be writing my vows so her mother will always know just how much I—

“Fuck’s sake, what are you doing?” Q grumbled, marching into a bedroom he’d given me in his château to get ready for the wedding. I’d waited a goddamn year for this day and now that it’d arrived, I could barely stand without my knees buckling.

Twisting in my chair where I sat by the window, I glanced at his immaculate linen suit. “Shouldn’t you be waiting at the altar with the best man?”

“Shouldn’t you be?” He scowled, giving me the same once over. I wore a similar suit, only difference was mine was white with a bright yellow calendula flower in my lapel and longer coat tails.

“You know if Ily had agreed with me to get married the day I found out she was pregnant, this whole circus could’ve been avoided.”

He smirked and looked out the window. “That circus is now your family. I got lucky with Tess being a single child with elderly parents. You? Not so much.” His smirk turned into a laugh. “You’re not only inheriting a bride today but a million different meddlers.”

I chuckled. “Least I like them. They’re good people.”

“Still a circus though.”

“Agreed.”

Down below, the entire lawn and part of the meadow had been transformed into an exotic wonderland. Lanterns danced on strings, strung across a white carpet leading to a gazebo decorated with shimmering fabrics and pretty flowers. Far too many chairs waited for the ceremony to begin, and our guests mingled and laughed beneath shade awnings by the refreshment tables.

I still didn’t understand how I’d gone from a kid who’d barely been tolerated by his own mother to somehow having an extended family of over four hundred guests.

Almost all the surviving jewels from Joyero had flown in, including Rose and Melanie, May and Faiza. The more recent slaves that Q and I had found over the past year and brought here—rehabbed by Tess and Ily—had also accepted an invitation, bringing a significant other who’d helped them move on.

Ily’s family numbered close to fifty with so many cousins and aunties and uncles. When we’d gone to visit them last year, I’d still held the fear they wouldn’t accept me. Especially seeing as Peter came too.

He was the better choice for Ily.

He was one of them.

But...the moment I’d been hugged and welcomed, I’d never once felt like an outsider. I’d feared they’d judge me for knocking up their daughter without a visible ring on her finger. Yet they merely booked in a Vedic astrologer to make predictions for our child and arranged for special mantras to be said while Ily was pregnant.

“You know two of them came, don’t you?” Q pointed at a dark-haired guy and a slender woman, standing slightly removed from the chaos of colour that was Ily’s extended family. The jingle of bangles and glitter of rhinestone-covered saris ensured my brother’s estate resembled the set of a Bollywood movie.

I’d been born into a world with no faith or culture.

I’d had nothing and no one and let fear and despair twist my view. But thanks to Ily’s daily routine of meditation and yoga that I’d adopted, I’d learned that life wasn’t out to destroy me. I wasn’t evil—despite the things I did to the rapists and traffickers we hunted. Every experience, good and bad, was only there to teach and guide and grow.

My love of reading had naturally gravitated toward texts that her father recommended, feeling more awake in this life, more aware, and more grateful than I ever thought possible.

No matter that I spent days hunting, baiting, and killing, I didn’t bring home those memories. I didn’t let hate shadow my happiness. And I never let any monster—including my own—trespass on my peace.

Never again would I ever think ending my life was the answer.

Never again would I be so ungrateful not to appreciate every fucking moment that I got to spend on this planet, in this body, with these people.

Christ, I’m lucky.