EPILOGUE

LAILAANDSEBASTIAN'SSMALL, intimate wedding—which somehow still had a hundred guests because Thea Skalas was determined to have one grandson's wedding the way she wanted it—got postponed, since Nyra Skalas, their cutest, prettiest little niece, with a full head of thick dark hair and her mom's big brown eyes, decided to make an appearance way ahead of schedule, sending them all into a tailspin of shock and surprise and laughter and a small nervous breakdown on the part of her father, who had bellowed at his twin at the top of his lungs because Sebastian had mocked him.

Even though Ani and the newborn were doing well, Laila insisted on waiting because how could she get married without her new friend/sister acting as her maid of honor. But since Ani had to have a caesarean and Alexandros was like an enraged/terrified bull on steroids every time his wife or his twin or his grandmother dared to suggest that maybe, just maybe, Ani was ready to be up and about for such a big event, they pushed it back a little more.

Which, of course, made Sebastian angry because he thought his twin was overprotective and was the main obstacle in the way of what he'd waited for his whole life.

Laila, for her part, loved it all: Alexandros's utter love for his daughter, how Sebastian—a natural at this, too—showed him how to support his brand-spanking-new niece's tiny head, how Nikos and Zayn couldn't stop blubbering about their itty-bitty cousin, about the pictures Thea insisted they shoot on day three with her two great-grandsons and great-granddaughter, and how Alexandros had nearly broken into tears when Nyra had smiled at him even as Sebastian teased that it was aimed at him—the superior uncle—and how she and Ani had hugged and laughed and cried together knowing that they'd found the kind of love that very few did.

Finally, a month after Nyra was born, the day dawned bright and sunny and Laila followed Annika, who was holding Nyra in her arms, down the aisle on Alexandros's arm—she'd been stunned and awed when he'd asked to give her away—and there was Sebastian waiting for her, with Nikos and Zayn by his side, looking like his very heart was lodged into the look he gave her.

She cried and smudged her makeup and cried a little more when he kissed her and whispered, "Six months just for us and then we're making a baby and this time, I want a girl as precious as Nyra."

"It's not a competition, you know," she said, a while later, as he kissed the back of her hand and they were whizzing away in a chauffeured car for a quick two-day getaway because neither of them really wanted to leave Nikos and Zayn just yet to Paloma and Ani and Alexandros and Thea, even though everyone kept assuring them they would be fine.

"Of course it is. That way, we could keep the bigger chunk of the Skalas fortune for our children."

Leaning into him, she kissed his naughty mouth. "As if you would take anything away from the little girl you call your princess already."

He laughed and pulled her hand up, until the two rings there shone brightly. They were unique and tiny—despite his protestations—and just right for her. He kissed the back of her hand, his throat moving on a hard swallow.

"I love you, Mr. Skalas," she said, looking into his eyes.

"I love you more, Dr. Jaafri," he whispered, and then she was squealing because he was pulling her into his lap and kissing her senseless and Laila thought her dream had finally come true with more color and love than she could have ever imagined.