Chapter 160

Layla

“You stole all of the pictures?!” I shouted.

I had no idea what to expect when Aldo told me that he had a plan to have my medical license reinstated. After he helped me get my bags sorted out from my returning back home, he dragged me to the office and bent down to the large safe that was strategically hidden within the wall panels and took out a large folder.

He placed the folder down on top of his desk with an unceremonious ‘thud’. My heart lodged itself in my throat the second I flipped back the cover. Pictures. Dozens of pictures—the same endless pile of photos that Eva had shown on her phone.

These were the photos that Agent Carter had been collecting over the years. All of me.

I took a massive step back from the desk and immediately wrapped my arms around myself. It was one thing to see these photographs through a captured image on a phone. But it was a completely different situation when I was glaring down at these same photographs in person!

“Oh my God,” I gasped.

I felt sick.

Aldo was quickly at my side, enveloping me in his arms.

“It’s alright,” he hushed. “You don’t need to look through any of them.”

“It’s so much worse seeing them in person,” I whimpered.

I buried my face in his shirt. He rubbed small circles along my back, patiently waiting for me to collect myself.

“Aldo, I don’t trust the chance of Carter actually leaving either of us alone,” I said. “You know that he’s going to find out that you took his folder—if he hasn’t already.”

A devious smile curved his mouth. “Oh, I’m counting on it. Once he realizes that he’s no longer in possession of it, he's going to reach out and try and negotiate some deal to get it back. Little does he know, that’s never going to happen.”

Was something like this really going to work?

“Aldo, this isn’t some random cop,” I reasoned. “This is a federal agent. Surely, he’s going to try and work his own type of high-stake leverage into the mix.”

He reached out to tuck a thick lock of hair behind my ear. A knowing smile pulled at his mouth.

“That may be so, but what I also know is that underneath that title and uniform is a desperate man who will submit to anything in order to protect his reputation,” he said.

The whole situation left an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A soft knocking sound on the door pulled both of our attentions toward the open doorway where Carlo stood.

“Boss, I have Agent Carter waiting on the phone,” he said.

My eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

Carlo nodded and extended his hand out to pass Aldo the phone. Aldo accepted the cell phone and pressed the speaker button so that we could all hear the conversation that was about to go down.

“This is Aldo Marcello.”

Agent Carter’s composed and stoic demeanor was nowhere to be found. His tone was harsh and on the edge of being manic.

“It would seem that you have something of mine,” he hissed.

“If you’re referring to the obscene file of pictures you’ve been collecting on my wife then, yes. I have them,” Aldo confirmed.

Carter snarled under his breath. “You know I could have you brought up on charges for breaking and entering as well as theft.”

“Yeah, you could. Only, how well do you think that’s going to bode well for you in the end?” he asked. “No matter how you think you’re going to drag my name and my family through the mud, I will guarantee you that you will not be coming out clean either. In fact, I have half a mind to report you to your director myself.”

A long pause passed before Aldo started to elaborate on his plan.

“You know, it’s one thing to be asking around for information about my family, but it’s a completely different situation when you have been blatantly stalking my wife for damn near a decade!” he growled in frustration. “That sounds a lot like ‘personal interest’. How would your superiors react to finding out that their ‘cleanest’ agent has been harboring such a disturbing secret?”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Ah, ah,” Aldo tsked condescendingly. “Remember who holds all the cards here. Or, perhaps, I should say ‘who holds the pictures’. Now, listen well because I will only be saying this once. Regardless of whatever you choose to decide on, you will never be getting these pictures back. Your ongoing hunt for trying to bring down my family comes to an end now.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Carter said tightly. “I can’t just walk away from this.”

“Then I suggest you put in a word with your superiors, claiming that there is nothing worth investigating about the Marcellos anymore,” he grated. “Oh, and one more thing.”

“What?” he barked out.

Shockingly, I watched as the anger around Aldo’s eyes lessened. “Look, I’m not happy about knowing that there is someone else out in the world who is obscenely obsessed with Layla. But, speaking as her husband, I can somewhat understand it. She’s a remarkable woman who possesses an amazing heart and true talent to heal those who are in need of her skills.”

“But you and I both know that those skills are useless if she doesn't have the official clearance to use them. It would mean everything to her if you could reinstate her medical license.”

Agent Carter let out a loud huff. “You know she still broke the law.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “But given the fact that she did it in pursuit of wanting to help those in need, can that not count for something?”

I overheard Carter let out an indignant noise. “My career is everything to me...If you can ensure that those photos will never get traced back to me...Alright.”

My mouth fell open as my knees buckled from beneath me. Oh my God. Could it really be true? Was I really going to have my medical license back?

“You have my word—not as a Marcello but as a man who wants nothing more than to ensure the safety and well-being of his family.”

“I suppose I’ll have nothing else to trust but that,” he said firmly. “I’ll get the paperwork started tomorrow. Layla should be receiving a notice in the mail in the next coming days.”

I clamped a hand over my mouth and failed to keep the tears back. Aldo ended the call and tossed the phone back to Carlo. He swiftly came to wrap his arms around me to ensure that I didn’t tumble to the ground.

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Do...Do you really think that he’ll keep his word.”

He rested his chin on top of my head. “I do,” he assured me.

I sucked in a tremulous breath still struggling to believe that my career was on its way to being restored.

“Thank you,” he said.

I pulled back to glance up at him. “For what?”

“For giving us a chance again,” he said. “I must confess that I was only reluctant about you leaving for your trip with the twins because I was terrified that you were going to come back and decide you didn’t want to have anything to do with the Marcello family or even me.”

My heart clenched in my chest. “All I thought about was Eli and the future I wanted for him. It’s one thing to train him and have him prepare for the possible worst, but it’s another to make him into something entirely unrecognizable. I don’t want whatever got to me to end up taking over him someday,” I told him.

“It won’t. Neither of us will ever let that happen,” he said.

“And...Well...I couldn’t bear the thought of us splitting up again. I hardly survived it the first time, there’s no way I would have been able to do that again. I’m determined to live in both words even if it means living in the gray.”

Aldo cupped my cheek. “Then I’m determined to live in the gray with you even if it means building it all from the ground up.”

We’d done that once before in our old life. Who's to say that we couldn’t do it again?

I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. “You are everything to me, Aldo Marcello. You and Eli.”

The emotion that crossed over his features had gone unspoken that was merely because no words needed to be said. Aldo captured my lips in another searing kiss and held me close to his chest.

“Whatever the future holds, I’m not worried about it,” he said. “Because we’ll be facing it together.”

All I could do was smile and allow the warmth to encapsulate me. An exciting spark of love and opportunity coursed through me. I felt as though we were on the cusp of something new. Something that would become entirely ours.

“Together,” I promised.

The End.