Chapter 7 - No More Debts
One year later, Gabriel Rossi stood inside a Philadelphia courthouse wearing a charcoal suit and looking more uncomfortable than he had while bleeding in Sadie's apartment.
Sadie adjusted his tie.
“Stop glaring.”
“I'm not glaring.”
“You're frightening the clerk.”
“The clerk will recover.”
“You're getting married, Gabriel, not negotiating a hostage exchange.”
“Similar paperwork.”
She laughed.
Their wedding was deliberately small.
Dean stood beside Gabriel.
Marco served as witness.
Frank Donnelly cried openly and denied it immediately.
Sadie wore a simple ivory dress.
Gabriel couldn't stop looking at her.
When the judge asked for their vows, Sadie turned toward him.
“I had something prepared.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“You?”
“I occasionally prepare.”
“I'm skeptical.”
She squeezed his hands.
“Then I realized everything important already happened.”
Gabriel's expression softened.
“You were a stranger in an alley. I didn't know your name, what you did, or what helping you would cost me.”
Dean muttered, “A lot.”
Sadie looked over.
“Dean.”
“Sorry.”
She turned back.
“I thought saving you was the reckless decision.”
“And now?”
“Now I think walking into Belladonna three weeks later was worse.”
Everyone laughed.
Even Gabriel.
Sadie continued.
“But somewhere between your impossible rules, my impossible brother, Victor Salerno, and you buying buildings without permission, I figured something out.”
“What?”
“You never treated my kindness like weakness.”
Gabriel's smile faded.
Sadie touched his cheek.
“And you never asked me to become someone else to stand beside you.”
Gabriel took a moment before answering.
Then he said, “You saved my life once.”
“Technically twice.”
“Don't interrupt my vows.”
She smiled.
He continued.
“You saved my life once in an alley. Everything afterward saved something more important.”
Sadie's eyes filled.
Gabriel lowered his voice.
“You gave me a reason to want a life instead of simply surviving one.”
The judge cleared his throat.
“I believe we're approaching the part where someone says I do.”
Gabriel never looked away from Sadie.
“I do.”
Sadie smiled.
“I do.”
The judge pronounced them married.
Gabriel kissed her.
Dean groaned.
“Again?”
Sadie laughed against Gabriel's mouth.
Afterward, everyone gathered at The Rusted Anchor.
No private ballroom.
No mansion.
No hundred-thousand-dollar reception.
Just friends, food, music, and the little neighborhood bar where the story had begun.
Near midnight, Sadie found Gabriel alone behind the building.
Rain had started falling.
She joined him.
“Thinking?”
“Dangerous habit.”
She slipped her hand into his.
“About what?”
Gabriel looked toward the alley.
“The first night.”
Sadie smiled.
“You looked terrible.”
“I was having a difficult evening.”
“You lied about being able to walk.”
“I was preserving dignity.”
“You collapsed twelve seconds later.”
“Details.”
Sadie rested her head against his shoulder.
Gabriel reached into his coat and handed her an envelope.
She groaned.
“If you bought another building—”
“Open it.”
Inside was the original ten thousand dollars she had brought to Belladonna.
Every dollar.
Sadie stared at him.
“You kept it?”
“I told you I didn't need it.”
“For a year?”
“I was waiting.”
“For what?”
Gabriel nodded toward the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten note.
DEBT PAID IN FULL.
Sadie looked at him.
“Dean's?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Mine.”
“You didn't owe me anything.”
“I did.”
“For saving your life?”
“For changing it.”
Sadie tore the note in half.
Gabriel stared.
“What are you doing?”
“No more debts.”
“Sadie—”
She tossed the pieces into a trash bin.
“No more favors owed. No scores. No keeping count.”
Gabriel studied her.
“What do we have instead?”
She smiled.
“A marriage.”
“That sounds considerably more expensive.”
She punched his arm.
He laughed and pulled her close.
The rain grew heavier.
A year earlier, Sadie Hayes had stepped into that alley because she couldn't watch a stranger die.
She had believed kindness was supposed to be simple.
It wasn't.
Sometimes kindness had consequences.
Sometimes it walked back into your life wearing a black suit and carrying your brother's debt.
And sometimes the man you saved became the man who finally understood that love wasn't another obligation to repay.
Gabriel brushed rain from Sadie's face.
“One question.”
“What?”
“That first kiss.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“What about it?”
“You said it wasn't romantic.”
“You were bleeding everywhere.”
“But was it good?”
Sadie laughed.
“You were half-conscious.”
“That's not an answer.”
She caught his face in both hands, exactly as she had that first night.
Then she kissed him.
Slowly this time.
When she pulled away, Gabriel smiled.
“Better?”
“Much.”
She took his hand.
“Come on, husband.”
“Where?”
“Home.”
Together they walked out of the alley.
This time, neither of them was bleeding.
Nobody was chasing them.
May you like
Nobody owed anyone anything.
And for the first time in both their lives, going home meant going to the same place
