Page 38

I t’s February twenty-third. The sun is shining, peeking out from behind white, fluffy clouds. The air is filled with laughter and music and my heart is overflowing with love.

Raffaele carries me in his arms like I weigh no more than the baby nestled in my own arms.

Our baby.

Our darling little Lucille was born happy and healthy, with eyes as blue as my own and a mop of blonde hair matching her father's. I’d read countless books in the later stages of my pregnancy to try and prepare myself for what it would be like when she was really here in my arms, but the books turned out to be useless.

Nothing could prepare me for the sheer joy of holding my baby in my arms for the first time, nor the overwhelming surge of warmth that flooded up from the depths of my soul. It was also the first time I ever saw Raffaele properly cry.

“Comfortable?” Raffaele sets me down on one of the loungers next to the pool and quickly drags one of the heaters closer.

“Very.” I smile up at him. “Although the heater might be too much. We are in Italy.”

“It’s still cold for a baby,” Raffaele insists. “We’re taking no chances.”

“Of course not. Come here.” I motion him closer with a finger, and once he’s within reach, I grasp his tie and jerk him down for a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

We moved to Italy not long after Caterina was released from the hospital. I didn’t want to be pregnant or raise my baby anywhere near the toxicity my father had left behind, and not just what he did to the water. There was so much bad energy around the property that coming to Italy to live out my pregnancy and the early months of Lucille’s life was the best choice.

And it’s been beautiful. The air has always been crisp and fresh. Winter was cold, but the snow was incredible, and ringing in the New Year at the vineyard was just perfect. Now, Lucille is here and our little family is complete.

“Sit with me.” I pat the space next to me. “Please?”

“Always.” Raffaele sits beside me and leans down, lightly kissing Lucille’s sleeping face. “She looks exactly like you when you sleep.”

“What, all wrinkly and old?”

“No.” Raffaele laughs softly. “Sweet. Cute.”

“Mmhmm. I think you just don’t want to admit that our darling baby looks like an old man.”

“She does a bit.” He grins. “She’ll grow out of it. Here.” He offers his fingers and pops a grape into my mouth. “She’ll be as stunning as you.”

“I know,” I say, chewing around the sweetness. “We made something perfect.”

So much has changed in the last year that it’s hard to believe I’m even here. The loss of a fiancé, a wedding to a man I hated, a whirlwind romance, the loss of my best friend, and the start of my hospital empire, followed by the insane revelation that my father was poisoning the water supply for his Irish overlords because all he cared about were money and power.

Now, the Irish powerhouse lies in dust at our feet with their dreams of a hold on the government in absolute tatters. Caterina is surviving and healing not just her physical wounds from the attack, but also her mental scars. Although, as I glance across at her leaning over the wall and flirting openly with the groundskeeper on the other side, I get the distinct impression that she’ll be healing faster rather soon.

“Vito was here earlier,” Raffaele says. “He’ll be back for dinner.”

“What did he want?”

“He just had some financial reports to drop off. Things to do with the businesses we absorbed from Pascal.”

Ah. My father’s businesses.

I had no desire to keep them, so after we absorbed them, I immediately distributed them to many of the smaller families feeling lost after Pascal’s betrayal to the Irish. Money and words can buy loyalty, sure. But providing a business and independent stability spoke louder to those families and in one deal, I secured their loyalty to both Raffaele and me. It was a spur of the moment decision that worked in our favor, much like my purchase of the hospitals.

Raffaele is happy to foot the bill because he’s still surprised that we gained six smaller families in one afternoon without a drop of bloodshed.

“Is everything okay?”

“Mmhmm.” Raffaele nods and feeds me another grape. “He just compiled the last quarter’s profits for you to review. He thinks one family might need some assistance in how they run things, but it’s more of a need to educate than anything else.”

“Understood. I’ll take a look after Lucille wakes for her feeding.”

As if hearing her name, Lucille shifts and sniffles in my arms but she doesn’t wake.

“How can I have so much love for something so small?” Raffaele says quietly. “It’s almost overwhelming.”

“I know.” I lean over and gently kiss his cheek. “But we’re learning together. And we’ll be overwhelmed together.”

“Did I die in that warehouse?” He tilts his head back and gazes up at the sky. “There’s no way this is my reality. I must have died and gone to heaven.”

“Really? Would I have broken your finger in childbirth if this were heaven?”

Raffaele glances down at his healing but still bruised knuckles and laughs. “No, I suppose not. Glad I could be of assistance, by the way.”

“I still feel terrible,” I reply. “I didn’t know I had that kind of strength.”

“Given that you were pushing a human out of you, I’m not surprised.”

“I am pretty amazing.”

“Yes, you are, and I love you for it.”

“I love you too.”

Raffaele kisses me again, slower this time, where he pays attention to my lower lip and smiles brightly as we part.

“Marry me.”

“What?” My heart jumps slightly. “We’re already married.”

“Marry me properly. A real ceremony that you can plan—we can plan, together. A real thing that’s for us and how we feel rather than a business transaction.”

“I think that’s just called a refreshing of vows,” I tease while excitement kicks my pulse up a few gears.

“Whatever.” He grins. “Will you? Marry me again?”

“A real ceremony for us? One that I can plan and we can have a proper celebration? Yes,” I say, laughing so eagerly that Lucille is woken in my arms. “I will marry you again.”

We kiss deeply to the sound of our daughter cooing in my arms, and my heart soars.

My soul is full.

Life is perfect.

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