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I talked to my parents a few days after the doctor’s visit. I didn’t tell them about the pregnancy. I didn’t tell them about Sebastian and me. After my conversation with Amy, when she asked me if I hated them, I couldn’t get the question out of my head.
They know the house is being transferred to my name. They also know I plan on demolishing it before I sell the land.
It’s the house Marius Willow took his bride, Anabelle Scafoni. It’s where all of this began. And I’m ending it.
Once the land is sold, I’ll give them the money, split it between my parents and sisters because I don’t want a penny of it. I don’t want anything to do with it or with them because I am angry. I’m angry at all of them.
My parents sold me. They would have sold any of us. And my sisters lived off that money. I can’t forgive them, not yet. Maybe not ever.
But I don’t think I hate them.
Sebastian offers to destroy the heavy tome that contains the records of the Willow Girls, but I take it, instead. I want to keep it. A Willow should keep it. Should remember them because they were cast aside by their families too. Sold. Their lives destroyed.
And having it under my arm as we walk out of that building, it’s like a sisterhood almost. And it’s right. As right as that bone-ring was wrong.
“Lunch?” Sebastian asks.
“I’m starving,” I say. It seems I’m always starving ever since I found out I was pregnant.
Pregnant with quadruplets.
We can find out the sex of the babies in a few more months, but I already know. I think he does too. We’ll have four girls.
He takes my hand and we walk to the same restaurant we came to the last time we were here. And we take the same table except that today, we appear to be the only customers. Once he has a glass of wine and I sparkling water, he leans in toward me.
“How are you feeling about things? The babies?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you want to keep them?”
I look at him. “That’s never been a question for me.”
“Good. I feel the same way.” He sips from his wine then reaches into his pocket and takes out a small, black-velvet box and sets it on the table between us.
I look at it and it takes my brain a minute to process even though my heart knows.
“What are you doing?” I ask him as he opens the box.
I turn my gaze up to his and he’s smiling but it’s a different sort of smile than I usually see on him. This one, it’s happy and a little unsure, maybe.
“In the short time I’ve known you, you have gotten under my skin, Helena Willow. You have turned my life upside-down, and I’m…happy. In spite of all the crap we’ve been through, I’m happy. I don’t know if I deserve to be, but I am. I love you and I want to marry you. So, this is me telling you I plan to keep you forever. Marry me, Helena.”
“Sebastian—”
“Now. Marry me now.”Epilogue 2Sebastian“What if I’d said no?” she asks as I lead her up to my room—our room—once we’re back on the island after the civil ceremony. I’d arranged for the ceremony before we went to Gallo’s office to sign that paperwork and not once did it occur to me she might say no.
“You weren’t going to.”
“You’re arrogant, Sebastian Scafoni.”
“And you’re beautiful, Mrs. Scafoni.”
I lift her up in my arms when I push the door open and carry her inside, kicking the door closed and setting her on her feet beside the bed.
“Besides, I’m old fashioned when it comes to bringing babies into the world. I want us married first,” I say.
“I still think you’re arrogant to assume I’d say yes.”
“You did say yes.”
I kiss her, unzipping the back of her dress as I do, peeling it off her shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. I stand back and look at her. Her breasts are swollen to twice their size, giving me a good handful, and although she says she sees a bump, I see the tiniest swell. Maybe.
“You’re fucking beautiful, you know that?” I say.
“I’m going to get fat.”
“I hope so. Fat with my babies. And about that. I lied earlier. It does matter. I want dozens. Dozens of boys and girls to run around here and bring joy back to this island. This house.”
She giggles as I peel off her bra. She reaches for the hem of my sweater and pulls it over my head.
I wrap one arm around her and pull her in, kissing her as I slide the other into her panties and cup her wet pussy. I draw back, look at her as I run my fingers over one breast before turning her, pushing her onto her hands and knees on the bed and peeling her panties down to mid-thigh.
