27. Epilogue

"Can you straighten that star a little bit?" I ask Elio.

I turn my head to the side as I watch Elio climb onto a chair and push the star on top of the tree in the foyer into position.

"Better," I tell him. I smooth out my long dress and turn around to look up at the decorations hanging from the banisters above my head.

I have been planning this gathering for weeks, but I keep worrying that I'm going to miss something important.

"Stop worrying," Elio tells me, coming up to hug me to his side. "This doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be welcoming."

I sigh. Easy for him to say.

Grazia has set an almost impossible bar over the past few years. All of her gatherings are flawless and extravagant and yet totally welcoming and fun.

This year, it's my turn to host the Christmas party for our families and I'm feeling pressured to live up to her example. That's no easy feat.

I look at my smart watch and see a text from Grazia. "They are about five minutes away," I tell Elio.

"I'll tell the security team to expect them," he says, taking out his phone and sending a text to the staff at the front gate. After we moved into Elio's family home, we increased security.

Elio is convinced that someone might kidnap Mateo or myself, and I suppose that he's not wrong to worry. Even with the added security, Mateo and I are allowed to live normal lives, which is a situation that is far more comforting than life in Mexico.

Mateo runs by me carrying the gifts that he asked to give to Enzo's brood of children for Christmas. I want to stop him and tell him to put them back under the tree, but I decide they can open a few presents early if their mother is fine with it.

"The guards at the gate say they are on their way," Elio tells me, bustling by me to go check on something in his office.

I stand in the center of the flurry of Christmas activity and my heart swells with happiness.

For years, Mateo and I spent Christmas alone. Sometimes Marco came to visit, but typically it was just us and our security team. The past few years it has felt very nice to be able to finally enjoy the holidays properly.

"Oh, there she is!" I exclaim when I see our daughter, Alina, being carried down the stairs toward me by her nanny. I had felt guilty at first about hiring a nanny for the children, but Elio had been right, as he often was.

It was nice to have some help with the children so that we could still spend time together each day. It made it easier to ensure that he could work without worrying about leaving me all alone with two small children to raise.

"Isn't she precious in her little dress?" the nanny says to me, fluffing out the red checkered skirt of Alina's little outfit.

My daughter waves her chubby little arms and giggles, leaning forward precipitously in her nanny's arms when she catches sight of me. I reach out and take her from the nanny, cuddling her and tickling her until she laughs merrily.

"Look at the pretty star on the tree," I say to her, bringing her over to one of the many brightly decorated trees in the house and letting her reach out to grasp a hold of one of the spiky branches of the tree.

She looks up with wide eyes at the sparkling lights and the glowing star.

The doorbell rings and the butler hurries to open it, admitting a flood of Baldinis. Grazia sails into the house ahead of the rest of the family, her pregnant belly leading the way and a pudgy baby girl of her own on her hip.

Grazia and I got to be pregnant at the same time with these chubby cheeked toddlers and now hopefully they'll grow up to be fast friends. Sure, Grazia and Marco spend more than half their time in Mexico. But we go a lot too so that won't be a hindrance.

She hugs me and tickles Alina, then turns in a circle, admiring my handiwork.

"This is beautiful!" she exclaims. "I love the swags on the railings."

I blush at her compliment. I am feeling better about the party already.

"How are you feeling?" I ask her. I nod toward her large belly and she places a small hand on top of it.

"Oh," she sighs. "I have good days and bad days. If your party was any later in the month, I would have had to miss it."

"Just don't have that baby here on La Rosa property," Marco says to her, coming up to hold her shoulders. He gives me a broad wink and I smile back at him.

After everything we've been through, there will always be an unbreakable protective bond between he and I. And now his wife too.

The children are already dashing around and chattering. The noise in the house has escalated significantly. I look past Grazia to see her brothers coming in the front door with their own families.

Emelia is leading the way, chattering a mile a minute with Lori. Enzo is quiet as always, looking around at the decorations with an impassive face.

As I get ready to greet Luca, his phone rings, he holds up a finger to me and moves away to take a phone call. Grazia rolls her eyes and gestures to Enzo, Emelia, and Lori. They all say hello to us and we start to exchange pleasantries.

Elio's brother and his mother come downstairs then to join the party and they are quickly followed by all Gabriel's three children. Jess is hurrying after them, chiding them for taking off their shoes and forgetting to put them back on.

"This is quite the group that you have assembled," Elio says to me over the din of many voices and children squealing and running around.

He pulls me to his side and surveys the chaotic, but happy scene before us.

"Who would have thought that our lives would have a happy ending?" I say to him, looking up at him for a kiss. As we are cuddling, I hear Luca's raised voice in the corner of the room.

"No, I didn't tell you to take that shipment until tomorrow!" He plugs his ear with a finger so that he can hear the other person on the line better. "Are you an idiot? You know better than to do that!" he yells into the phone. "Listen, I will just have to come there and…"

Grazia sets her jaw, whirls away from the little cluster of people in the center of the foyer, and marches up to her brother. She grabs his phone from him and throws it to the ground before stomping on it with her foot, shattering the screen and ending the call.

"Grazia!" he shouts at her in disbelief. "What the hell?"

"It's Christmas!" she yells back. "Enjoy it with your family for once."

She turns on her heel and comes striding back up to us, with a rather pleased expression on her face. We all exchange small smiles.

I have enjoyed watching Grazia come into her own over the past couple of years and I think everyone else feels the same way. Everyone except Luca, that is.

"Are you surprised that our families get along so well after everything that happened in the past?" I say to Grazia as I watch Mateo approaching Enzo's daughter with a gift tucked behind his back.

"Yes," she replies with a laugh. "But I'm happy that everything worked out so well in the end."

I watch Mateo offer the present to Enzo's daughter, his cheeks pink and flushed. She takes it shyly and then leans over to press a kiss to his cheek. She runs away carrying the package and Mateo stands there holding his hand over the spot that she kissed for a moment. Then he runs after her out of the room.

I look up at Elio and grin. "It seems like our families are destined to be bound together well into the future."

"Shall we go in the kitchen and toast to future generations of Baldini Rodriguez La Rosa's?" Elio asks.

"As long as you have sparkling water, I'm in," Grazia says with a wry smile and a hand on her huge belly.

I watch Elio lead the gaggle of Baldinis toward the kitchen and hold our daughter tightly in my arms.

Luca sulkily follows after them, turning his ruined phone over in his hands and looking annoyed. Enzo rounds up the children and shoos them into the playroom.

The foyer is suddenly much quieter and I can hear the Christmas music that is being piped into the main areas of the house again.

I look up at the Christmas star on the tree and I thank whoever was watching over us for this happy ending.

The End

***

Did you like this book?

Then you"ll LOVE Luca and Emelia"s story in book one of the Billionaire Sinners series.

Start reading Surprise Baby for the Mafia Boss NOW!

***

I"m knocked up by the man I could never have.

He's a ruthless Italian Don.

And my best friend's brother.

When your lifelong bestie is a mafia princess,

You end up intertwined with the family, like it or not.

Her big brother grew tall, chiseled, and powerful right before my eyes.

It's been pure torture to have him so close, but so off-limits.

But when he needs to impress a rival family, he asks me to pretend I'm his.

I know the risks but I can"t say no.

Even if it means I'll lose my best friend.

As we fake our marital bliss, I see it in his devilish eyes;

I've gone from invisible to he'll never let me go.

But now I'm growing a surprise that threatens to destroy the trust we've built.

This pregnancy is an accident, not a trap… I swear.

Start reading Surprise Baby for the Mafia Boss NOW!