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“It’s true,” Nikolai confirmed quietly.
Darius nodded. “Then Rufus needs to know, no matter what happens after this, that I’ve asked Mia to marry me, and she’s accepted.”
The older man smiled. “She couldn’t have chosen a better man.” He chuckled softly when Darius blinked his surprise. “I sincerely hope that my daughter and you will allow me to be a part of her life going forward.” He gave a dazed shake of his head. “I have no idea how any of this is possible, but I have absolutely no doubts, even without the DNA test, that Mia is my daughter. She has my eyes, and she looks so much like Beth,” he said achingly.
“Then I’m happy for you,” Darius told him gruffly. “For both of you.” His arm tightened about Mia’s waist.
“And I promise you, no matter how long it takes, I will get to the bottom of this,” Rufus added grimly. “I know from her file that my Emily was forced to spend almost eighteen years of her life in an orphanage, and two more years living hand-to-mouth as a student.” A dark thundercloud now creased his brow. “Someone is responsible for that, and once I discover who, I intend to make them suffer for it.”
Darius couldn’t fault the other man for feeling that way. He was feeling pretty fucking vengeful himself against whoever could have done this to Mia.
In the meantime, once Mia felt up to it, they had a wedding to plan.
Her thoughts were obviously running along the same lines as she looked shyly at the man she has just discovered was her father. “Will you give me away at our wedding?”
The tears fell heavier and faster down the hard grooves in Rufus’s cheeks. “It would be my greatest honor.”
Darius removed his arm from about Mia’s waist as she stood.
She seemed unsure once she’d done so what to do next.
Rufus seemed just as uncertain. “May I hug you?”
“Please,” she invited softly.
The were both crying before their arms even went about each other, and the tears streamed down both their faces once they were hugging tightly.
The first hug father and daughter had shared for almost twenty years.
Darius couldn’t even imagine how heartbreaking—
“Until now, I had thought I might be given the privilege of walking Mia down the aisle.” Nikolai gave an exaggerated sigh. “Perhaps I could ‘disappear’ Rufus before the wedding day…” he mused speculatively.
“Shut up, Nikolai,” the three of them said together before looking at each other and bursting out laughing.
Seconds later, the much-feared and respected Russian Wolf joined in their laughter.
* * *
Two years later, Mia and Darius’s daughter, Elizabeth Anoushah Kingston, was born. She was welcomed and instantly loved by both of her parents, her doting grandfather, Rufus, another set of grandparents, and all her uncles and aunts.
Mia’s childhood might have been barren of love, but her father and Darius had more than made up for it in the years since. Nor could she have asked for a more loving and close-knit family than the Kingstons.
By the time Mia and Darius’s son, Leo Rufus Kingston, was born, a year after his sister, Mia was running a successful and well-established animal shelter. Its guests were often welcomed by a joyful Honey, although she was more often than not to be found standing guard somewhere over Beth and Leo.
Darius was, as Mia had known he would be, the most passionately loving and caring husband in the world. As well as being a perfect and affectionate daddy to their two children.
Mia had no doubts that, if they had more children, Darius would love them with that same intensity.
The same intensity with which Mia loved him and he loved her.
Forever.
* * *
