Epilogue
ANN-SOPHIE TOOK ONE last glance at the library, then closed the door.
The planning was finished. In a week, the Carandini Family Library would open to the public.
She had overseen the enormous process of digitalizing the catalog that Alessandro’s aunt had so carefully kept, and a small army of librarians and assistants had been hired.
The training had covered everything from caring for historical material, to working with academic institutions.
But most importantly, they had spent months interviewing the residents of the area to figure out what the community needed from the library, and then implementing the findings.
Ann-Sophie’s passion of the last year was finally coming to life.
As she made her way through the now-familiar halls of the villa, flashes from the last year came to her.
But she kept going back to the days after the birth of little Emilio—named after Alessandro’s grandfather—when her mother had stayed with them.
Ann-Sophie had enjoyed the greatest gift she had ever received: time with the three most important people in her life… along with some much-needed support.
Alessandro and Massimo had agreed on a step to what Ann-Sophie considered a long-overdue boundary: They changed the code on the villa’s gates, ending the threat of their parents’ surprise visits.
It had worked. As Ann-Sophie had guessed, there was no evidence that either of his parents would change, but their harm was significantly contained.
Alessandro was living proof of it. Since the day their baby was born, he had seemed to fundamentally reorient himself toward their little family.
They had also spent time in her Stockholm apartment.
She loved her neighborhood and had insisted she wasn’t interested in finding something larger but hadn’t turned down Alessandro’s suggestion for renovations to make the place easier to handle with the baby.
And she definitely didn’t mind the clear conversation he had had with the property-management company about a commitment to same-day fixes if, for example, the elevator broke.
He was just…like that now. Sometimes, she was still stunned at the way her life had taken shape since that one fateful week in Nice.
Ann-Sophie walked outside, onto the pool deck.
Catarina was floating in the water, her round belly suggesting that Emilio’s new cousin would arrive shortly.
Under the parasol on the far side, Alessandro bounced their little baby on his knee as he and Massimo talked.
As soon as Alessandro caught sight of her, his face lit up with a smile that still felt like the sun, all heat and light.
She crossed the terrace and kissed him, breathing in his warm woodsy scent, then lifted little Emilio into her arms.
“Did the final updates to the catalog go smoothly?” he asked.
She nodded. “It’s all ready for next week’s opening.”
He stood up and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear before Emilio caught it in his little hand. Then his finger drifted over her bare shoulder and onto her back, sending a shiver of heat through her.
“I’m so proud of you,” he said, his voice low and private, and he kissed her again, letting his lips linger on hers.
Want and need curled inside her, and she didn’t try to untangle them.
This feeling was a reminder of the shape the word enough had taken over the last year.
She had always understood it as an acceptance of her missing father, but the wisdom of her mother’s words all those years ago had grown to mean something quite different.
Enough was the anchor of the deep satisfaction with what she had.
She was enough. Their love was enough to protect them from the storms of life.
This life was what she had been looking for all along.