He closed his eyes and let out a groan. “Instead, I drove you away, and you came here yourself to take care of him.”
“He’s here, and he very much needs a mother and a father.”
“You would do this? You would take in a child that is not your own?” he asked.
“Isn’t that what you plan to do? What you planned to do when you thought our daughter was not your own?”
He gathered her close in his arms, his body trembling against hers. “I love you, yineka mou. So much. Never leave me again. Not even if I deserve it.”
She laughed lightly. “I won’t. Next time, I’ll stay and fight, which is what I should have done this time. You won’t get rid of me so easily again.”
“Good,” he said gruffly. “Now let’s go see our son.”
Epilogue
“S he’s the most beautiful girl in the world,” Piers said proudly as he held up six-week-old Mary Catherine for his brothers to admire.
“You can only say that because Marley is having another boy,” Chrysander pointed out.
“Listen to them,” Bella said in disgust. “Why is it that babies turn men’s minds to mush?”
“I thought that was good sex,” Marley said mischievously.
“Well, that too,” Jewel said with a laugh.
Eric stood with the Anetakis men, looking absurdly proud of his little sister. Jewel’s heart never failed to swell when she saw the love between father and son.
Eric’s adoption had become final just two weeks before Mary Catherine had been born. A week later, Piers had received a frantic phone call from the laboratory that had performed the paternity test. They had, indeed, made a mistake and mixed up his results with someone else’s. Piers had been horrified all over again over the fact that he’d blasted Jewel, but she reminded him that he’d taken her word on faith long before he knew the results were in fact in error. That was enough for her.
Bella had been quick to point out that all they’d needed to do was wait for Mary Catherine to be born because no one in their right mind would ever deny that she was an Anetakis through and through.
She was dark haired and dark eyed, and blessed with the olive complexion of her father. She was for all practical purposes a miniature Piers.
Jewel looked around at her family, all gathered at her home on the cliff overlooking the sea. There was so much happiness here. It was hard to believe at times that it was all hers. That she had a family. That she belonged. She and Piers had both been drifters for so long, but somehow they’d found their way to one another and had at long last found what mattered the most. A home.
“I’d like to propose a toast,” Chrysander said as he raised his glass. “To the Anetakis wives. I’ve no doubt they’ll keep us on our toes well into our old age, and I plan to enjoy every minute of it.”
“Here, here,” Theron said as he raised his own.
Piers turned to smile at Jewel, and she rose to stand by his side as they both looked down at the bundle in his arms. She put out her arm, and Eric snuggled against her side.
“I’d also like to propose a toast,” Jewel said. “To Bella. May she give Theron a house full of girls all as beautiful and as sassy as she is.”
“Bite your tongue,” Bella said, but her eyes twinkled merrily.
Theron put his arm around his wife. “God help me if that is true. One Bella is all this world needs.”
“I’d like to propose a toast to love and friendship,” Marley said. She pulled Jewel and Bella away from their husbands and linked her arms around them both.
Jewel and Bella squeezed back.
“To love and friendship,” they both echoed.