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Five years later—Lake Como

LILI PUSHED OPEN the big heavy gates leading out onto the lake. It was dawn and the light was pearlescent over the water. A mist hung over the horizon. The heat of the coming day was in the air but it was still deliciously cool.

All was quiet and peaceful, apart from the smallest of snuffles coming from the baby tucked against her chest in a sling, rosebud mouth in a little moue. She had dark hair like her parents and it looked as if her eyes were turning blue.

Fair’s fair, thought Lili as she smiled and rubbed a finger over the downy cheek. Luca, their firstborn, had his father’s eyes.

And as for the twins, in the middle, well, they took after their biological parents who had died tragically after a massive automobile accident. Lili had confided in Cassian that she’d like to adopt, it was something she had always wanted, but thought she might not get to do, if she was going to be a lone parent.

But after they’d had Luca and when he was almost two, she’d found herself feeling increasingly passionate about giving a child the experience she’d never had. Of being fully a part of a loving family. When the twins had come up for adoption—only a year old—they’d taken one look at each other and known they wanted to do it.

The twins’ tragic circumstances, so close to what Cassian had experienced had touched him deeply.

The first year had been beyond challenging but they’d come through it and Luca was a happily doting older brother to Rocco and Nico. And now, they were all doting older brothers to Catia, their baby sister.

And then Lili heard it and looked up. The familiar sound of a boat approaching the pier. And the tall, broad figure at the helm. They were rarely apart for long at all now, but if Cassian had to go somewhere on his own he always came back like this and this was their ritual. Lili waiting for him at the pier.

This pier no longer felt like a precipice to her. It felt like home.

The boat came closer and she grinned at her husband. It had only been twenty-four hours but it had felt like a week. He grinned back. He cut the engine and threw her the rope. She secured the boat to the post.

Cassian leapt off the boat and first, took Lili’s face in his hands and kissed her deeply, before pulling back the sling a little and regarding his daughter.

‘How is she?’

‘Not a great night but now you’re back you can take over and let Mama get some rest.’

‘Absolutely.’

Lili looked at him sternly. ‘And that doesn’t mean napping with benefits.’

Cassian grinned wider. ‘Oh don’t worry, I’ll let you sleep so you have energy for tonight.’

Lili knew she was as bad as he was so she couldn’t really feign indignation, or reluctance. Sometimes it came back to her, how she’d been, so fearful and isolated, scared of touch. Those days were long gone now and she was endlessly grateful.

They started back up to the villa after closing and locking the gate again, mindful of three mischievous boys. Arms wrapped around each other Cassian asked, ‘How are you feeling about the weekend, are you ready?’

Lili put her hand into the back pocket of his jeans and relished the feel of his muscular buttock. Diverting her mind away from the ever-present desire that hummed between them, she said, ‘A little nervous, because it’s the first time we’ll all be together, but really glad it’s happening.’

He squeezed her closer. ‘You’re amazing. So many people wouldn’t have bothered trying to contact their family for fear of what might happen but you did it.’

Yes, she had. With Cassian’s support and encouragement. And it had gone better than Lili could have ever hoped. It turned out that her mother had given birth to her at just sixteen. Her mother’s family had told her she had to give the baby up for adoption because of the scandal. But, her boyfriend, Lili’s father, had stayed with her and they’d ended up marrying years later, and having three more children.

So Lili had a new, ready-made family. Brothers and a sister. Who were all lovely with strong physical resemblances. Her first meeting with her parents had been incredibly emotional because they’d always regretted having to give her up and they’d hoped that she would want to know them. She’d never fully revealed to them the pain of her adopted family’s treatment of her, but they had guessed as much by the fact she wasn’t in touch with them.

This weekend was the first time they would all come to visit together, her brothers and sister bringing their families too. Her children had cousins. That fact alone made Lili so happy.

And, their close friends, Dante and Alicia D’Aquanni were coming for a barbecue to meet with the family and bringing Olli who was now eight, and the ringleader of all the other children.

Dante and Alicia’s two eldest children had left home and Cara at fifteen had a boyfriend which Cassian liked to wind Dante up about, mercilessly, much to everyone’s amusement, until Dante had turned around one night and looked at baby Catia and said, ‘Your time will come, my friend, your time will come.’ Cassian had not found that amusing.

Still smiling at that memory, Lili just heard Cassian groan faintly before she realised that they were about to be ambushed by three small boys who were still in their pyjamas and had been hiding in a bush. Cassian fell onto the grass and disappeared under a tangle of limbs and calls of Sorpresa Papa!

The baby at her breast stirred and let out a little mewl of hunger. Lili rubbed her back, soothing her, and took a mental snapshot of the moment and the feeling of sheer joy and happiness, before she put on her stern voice and helped to untangle her sons from their father, shooing the boys back up to the house to wash and change for breakfast.

Alone again, for a brief moment, Cassian stole another kiss from his wife and then deftly extricated his daughter from the sling. He held her up and she looked at him with wide blue eyes. And smiled. Cassian’s heart expanded a little bit more.

He put her in the crook of his arm and patted Lili on the backside with an explicitly lingering touch. ‘Go, sleep, I’ll take over.’

Lili groaned. ‘Have I told you that I don’t just love you, I adore you?’

Cassian chuckled and watched her back away quickly, seizing her moment. When she was gone, Cassian turned around and took a moment for himself, his daughter in his arms, and gave thanks for everything.

The endless love and passion in his life. It was so full now and satisfying, that there was no room for shadows any more.

Catia moved in his arms and he looked down and said, ‘Yes, my love, let’s get you fed and changed and then see about your feral brothers, hm?’

And Cassian walked back up through the gardens and into the villa that once again housed a family full of love and happiness.

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