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EPILOGUE
Two years later
‘ARE YOU READY?’ Skye asked her husband, smiling at him. She had expected to be nervous, given what they were about to do. But it was Matteo who showed all the signs of being on the brink of a breakdown.
Well, that was only fair.
This baby belonged to both of them, after all. They’d both helped make it, over long, exhausting months.
And now it was time.
Finally.
To show the world what the Vin Santos had achieved, side by side.
‘As I’ll ever be.’ He squeezed her hand and his eyes roamed her face. ‘Ti amo.’
‘Lo so.’
‘Let’s go.’ The door to the car was opened and Matteo stepped out, standing aside to make room for his wife.
She was resplendent in a black ballgown. Cameras flashed everywhere, perfectly catching the bright red of the geraniums that tumbled in the moonlight from every window of the hotel.
‘Have you heard news of the twins?’ he asked, tucking a hand into the small of her back.
Skye’s gaze drifted up past the brass flagpoles towards the perfectly restored windows that overlooked the river Tiber.
‘The nanny texted just before. They have been asleep for over an hour.’ She nodded. ‘They’re waiting for us in the penthouse.’
‘Ah! I thought Francesca was going to give us some difficulties there,’ he said.
‘She never does travel well,’ Skye agreed. ‘Then again, she’s only twelve months old. That’s normal for this age, I believe.’
‘And she is very cute.’ He winked. ‘Like her mother.’
Skye felt colour flush along to the roots of her hair, amazed at how his compliments could still turn her insides to mush.
‘And Alfonso is just like you.’
‘Yes.’ Matteo grimaced. ‘I’m sorry about that. His determination is a force to be reckoned with.’
Skye nodded. ‘But we’ll reckon with it together.’
The crowds parted to allow them entry into the hotel. Christmas Eve at Il Grande Fortuna for the first time in decades was just as magical as Skye had hoped—it was everything she’d imagined from Matteo’s stories and the photographs she’d seen. It was sublime.
‘Shall we dance?’
Skye nodded, catching the classical Christmas carols and smiling. ‘Si.’
She put her hand in his and he held her tight, and with his body he promised everything she already knew to be true.
She was safe with him and she was loved by him.
They were a family.
And she’d never feel loneliness again.
* * * * *
