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Cristiano clapped. “Bravo. Well done. I’ve been waiting for you to do that.”
She glared at him. “Do what?”
“Stand up for yourself.” The corners of his mouth tilted, creases fanned from his eyes. “And, Sam, you’re right. Your home wasn’t with Johann. Your home was with Gabby. Your home is still with Gabby. That hasn’t changed. It will never change. She needs a mother, Sam, and you are that mother. You must know that in your heart.”
He’d said all the right words, he’d said exactly what she felt. Sam loved Gabby as if she were her very own child.
“The prenuptial is intended to protect you, Sam. That’s all. I don’t want to buy you, or own you—”
“Then tear it up.”
“Sam.”
“Tear it up,” she insisted.
He took the paper, shredded it and Sam exhaled. “I will marry you,” she said quietly, “on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
She took a slow deep breath for courage. “That it be a real marriage. Not another marriage of convenience. I can’t be a wife in name only anymore. I want to be a real wife. I want to be a real mom. I want to feel like I matter and I’m not just a contract or a piece of paper.” And despite all her best efforts, her voice quavered. “The best part of marrying Charles was knowing I’d have a home, a place where I belonged. But then he died, it was all snatched away, it never happened.”
Cristiano’s hard jaw gentled. “I don’t know your history with Charles, but I do know this. You belong here, Sam. We need you here—Gabby and me.”
And that’s when Sam gave up fighting, because she needed them even more.
They went back to Monte Carlo after dinner so Gabby could return to school. Cristiano notified Ludwin’s School for Girls that Gabriela wouldn’t be enrolling after all. Cristiano attended to business, leaving Sam to manage the wedding details. She could have any kind of wedding she wanted, he said, his only request was that it be soon.
Sam wanted a very small wedding and they settled on a private ceremony at the villa. There’d be no guests, just the three of them and the officiate, of course.
Planning the wedding was easy after that. Sam and Gabriela went shopping together in Monte Carlo, and Sam let Gabby select the dresses they’d wear for the afternoon ceremony. Gabriela was delighted to pick out a wedding dress for Sam and had Sam try on virtually everything in the store before finding a favorite.
Other details were attended to, like purchasing shoes to match their dresses—something Gabby felt was very important, and pretty hair accessories, again another Gabriela request.
But time had passed and it was Saturday afternoon, now just two hours before the ceremony. Cristiano had offered to send a hairdresser to the house but Sam thought that expense, on top of all the others, too frivolous. Instead she and Gabby holed up in Sam’s bedroom suite at the villa where they sat in matching robes sharing afternoon tea before they changed into their special dresses.
“Are you scared, Sam?” Gabby asked, holding her cup delicately in one hand.
“I’m a little nervous,” Sam admitted. “Marriage is very serious.”
“Cristiano said you weren’t really married to Papa Johann. That someone made a mistake and you were really just friends.”
Sam was rather impressed with the explanation Cristiano had given Gabby. It wasn’t the exact truth but it was one a child, particularly a sensitive child like Gabriela, could understand. “That’s right. Johann and I are friends. We were never married like your friends’ parents.”
Gabby sipped from her cup. “Is that why you never shared the same bedroom?”
Sam flushed, embarrassed but not surprised that Gabby had picked up on that. “Yes.”
“Will you and Cristiano share a bedroom?”
Sam’s flush deepened. Her face felt hot from her neck to her scalp. “Probably,” she hedged, stopped sipping. She hadn’t thought about it. Deliberately hadn’t thought about it.
“Will you and Cristiano have a baby?”
“Gabby.” Sam rebuked softly. “Can Cristiano and I just get married first?”
