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Justin, her brother, grabbed her arm and led her over to the other side of the table. “Scarlett, I want you to meet my wife and my daughters.”
Her heart squeezed. She couldn’t believe she’d been gone so long that now her brother was married and had two kids.
“This is Paulina.” He gestured to a woman who stood, holding out her hand. “And these are my two twin daughters, Judith and Tara.”
Scarlett waved at the girls, who looked around five or six. “Hi.”
Even though they both ducked their heads out of shyness, they were polite enough to wave back to her, which made her laugh softly. She remembered being that age and being dragged to political functions with her parents and the long hours trying to keep her and her brother entertained.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to offer to take the girls over to where the other kids were, Grux came up behind her and kissed her cheek.
“How’s everything going over here?”
Scarlett’s mother gasped. “Oh, the baby!”
Scarlett laughed again. “Do you want to hold him, Mom?”
Collette pressed her hands together, coming up close to see Gruxor cradled in Grux’s arms still.
“May I?”
Grux leaned toward her, carefully passing the baby into her arms. He watched her warily, making sure she had a firm grip on him before stepping back and letting her rock him gently in her arms.
Scarlett placed a hand on his back, running it along his shoulder blade.
“Oh, he’s precious.” Her mother spoke softly, looking down at his sleeping form.
“The nursemaid fought to keep him up all morning so he’d sleep through the ceremony. He might be out for a bit.”
Both her father and brother came up behind Collette to peek over her shoulder at the newborn.
“I can’t believe you had a baby, sis.”
Scarlett laughed, nudging Justin with her arm. “I can’t believe you had two!”
He grinned at her. “Time sure flies. Doesn’t it?”
There was a sadness in his voice—a kind of melancholy—that she wasn’t surprised by. Even though today was a day of celebration that brought them all together finally after so long, it was still a reminder that Scarlett had been stolen from them all those years ago.
She didn’t doubt for a second that they looked for her right up until they got the call from Lorr about her binding to the Lorr prince and were shocked to hear that she’d gotten herself all the way over to Xoyosis and back to Lorr.
The only consolation to all of this was that now she was in a position where she would be able to visit them whenever she wanted. She would no longer be under the thumb of servitude in order to work off a debt she’d never accrued in the first place.
Scarlett held out her arms when Gruxor started to wake and whine.
“Uh-oh.” Her mother smiled, passing him back to her. “Feeding time.”
Scarlett curled her arm under Gruxor and stuck a finger against his lips, letting him pull it into his mouth to suck on it. She smiled and looked back up at her family. Her heart warmed from their loving stares.
“Thank you all for coming.”
When the celebration of their binding was over with, both he and Scarlett headed back to their room to change and get the remaining bits packed in their bags for the baby.
His original plan was to take her to the far-off island of Tageind on Noxxa, where his brother had retired after marrying his wife, Gianna. From Kozien’s own mouth, he’d described it as a “paradise among the stars,” which sounded perfect for their little vacation away from the Lorr palace.
But now that Grux thought about it, maybe they could travel before they settled down on Tageind for a while. He wasn’t sure how long Scarlett wanted to remain on their honeymoon, but neither of them had any pressing matters to attend to.
So however long she wanted to stay away from Lorr, he didn’t care one bit.
