Chapter 99

(Emily's POV)

It's Christmas Eve.

Lea loves Christmas. Usually, she throws a huge party. Or, if it's just her family with Steve and myself, we do all the little Iush traditions like making a ring of holly for the door and putting a candle in the window. Then we cook our own fudge and pop popcorn in the fireplace, and we open one present each, which is always pajamas.

Tonight, I'm doing something different.

I'm going to the north end of the city, to Dimitri's penthouse. I'll be back in the morning at Lea's house to make pancakes and open presents with my brother and Lea's family. But tonight it's Dimitri and me, all alone, for the first time in a long time.

I was amazed my brother agreed to it. I think he realized after the accident at the hospital that this is real, and it's not going away.

After all, Dimitri saved my life, again. He spotted the man before anybody else. He blocked the bullet-headed right for my face. Then he shielded me with his own body. That's what gave my father t