Epilogue
ALYX
A ndraste Grand Duke Armand walked his recently discovered cousin, the Grand Duchess Alyxandretta, down the aisle in Sacramento today. Royal watchers from around the world flooded the city and jammed up YouTube with impromptu video coverage after the family declined to air the wedding on national television. While not invited to the wedding itself, the First Lady and the vice president were invited to the reception along with some two thousand other dignitaries.
The happy couple includes groom Daniel Voldakov, a self-made billionaire and sole owner of Spherecast Technologies. The software giant employs nearly seven hundred people in the Los Angeles area. The fairy tale love story for Grand Duchess will be the subject of a cable movie, The Billionaire and his Pauper Princess . It’s rumored that the grand duchess herself will have a role in the film.
In the meanwhile, royal hopefuls have their eye on the playboy Grand Duke Armand. He broke up with his on-again-off-again girlfriend, model Nikole duMonde, last month in Monte Carlo. We have to wonder if his cousin’s nuptials gave the model ideas and the confirmed bachelor sought to curb her chances at catching the bouquet.
So, which lucky lady will catch his eye next? We can only standby for further developments.
Back to you, Bob.
“What lucky lady will catch his eye next?” Alyx laughed as she clicked off the entertainment report. “After all the cameras outside the hotel, I think that lucky lady would have to want to live under a microscope to set her sights on him.”
“Hmm, possibly.” They were sprawled in the room of their borrowed Napa estate. Daniel, with Armand and Victor’s help, led the paparazzi on a merry chase. The press thought they were flying out, but instead, they’d driven off in Alyx’s old car of all things.
While everyone searched for a limousine, they’d made their escape in the ten-year-old Volvo.
Daniel traced a finger down her bare leg. “Any regrets?”
She glanced at him, then the crest ring he’d slid on next to his wedding ring. “None. You?”
“Yes.” He nodded solemnly.
Worry bloomed in her chest. He’d insisted on a fast wedding, splitting the difference with her family for six months, rather than their traditional one-year engagement.
She’d been tempted to toss the whole lot, but after seeing how much Armand enjoyed giving her away, and the faces of those friends that were near and dear to them, she’d been satisfied with the choice. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re still sitting at the end of the bed, when I have all this wonderful room up here.”
“Mean,” Alyx accused, laughter writhing through the anxiety. She grabbed a pillow and pounced forward, swinging.
“Foul!” He roared playfully and swatted her with a pillow of his own. They beat on each other until his pillow exploded and he cried mercy. But her moment of triumph was short-lived as he swept her down onto the bed and pinned her in a scorching kiss.
Breathlessly she stared up at him and then pinched his shoulder.
“Ow.” He grinned. “What did I do?”
“Everything. I just have to keep reminding myself that you’re real.”
“Oh, I’m definitely real.” He kissed her again as if to prove his point. “And if you keep pinching me, I won’t give you your wedding present.”
“You got me a present?”
“Hmm-hmm.” He grinned and rolled over to open the bedside drawer. She didn’t know when he’d secreted the present in, but she sat up to accept the flat package wrapped in red and gold foil. No name tag or bow offset the plain elegance of the wrap.
“What is it?”
“Open it.” He laughed, resting a hand on her thigh.
She shook it once. “I don’t hear keys.”
“Nope. It’s not a new car, but you are getting one.”
“I like my Volvo.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
“Me too. It will make a lovely cube of metal for some modern art collection.” He squeezed her leg. “Go on, open it.”
“Hmm.” She put the foil-wrapped box to her forehead. “The Great Karnac sees all and knows all—” She squinted at him. “It’s a ticket for endless wonder.”
“Open it,” he repeated patiently, his eyes twinkling. “Silly wife.”
Her heart melted. “Say it again.”
His eyebrows lifted. “What, open it?”
“No. The other part.”
“Silly wife?” He grinned. “I like the sound of that. Wife.”
“Me too.” And the tears gathered in her eyes again. He didn’t ask, just sat up and tugged her into his arms, holding her tight. It was so hard to get used to—this sense of permanence in her life of transience.
But Daniel loved her. Daniel married her.
He may have helped her rediscover her roots, but he’d become her family.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Open the box.”
Sniffling, she swiped at her tears and slit the paper up the seam with her nail. The plain white box inside betrayed nothing of its contents. Daniel crumpled the paper and tossed it toward the wastebasket. She slit the tape on the edges of the box and pulled open the lid.
“Oh my God.” The earlier tears surged with a vengeance and the photograph in the simple black frame swam in front of her.
“It’s the best I could do.”
“Daniel?” She looked up at him. “It’s my mom and dad.”
“I know, baby. You’re there too. See?” He pointed to her mom’s belly and she had to blink furiously to see past the tears. Her parents were sitting outside, under a very familiar tree. Her dad’s arms were around her mom and they were laughing at the camera. Her mother’s swollen belly revealed her pregnancy.
“How?” He’d found a photo. She saw herself in her father, the shape of her ears, the jut of her chin. She looked just like her father. And like Armand—they had the same eyes.
“We found a woman named Kelly Kensington. She was your mom’s best friend and the maid of honor at her wedding?—”
“The chapel.” She looked up. “When you told me about it.”
“Yep. It occurred to my P.I. that their marriage had to be recorded somewhere and there was at least a small chance that so would their witnesses. After that, it was just a matter of finding them. Ms. Kensington had this in her photo album and a couple more from when you were a baby. They’re all at home waiting for you. But this one—this one I wanted you to have now.”
“I love you.” She wrapped her arms around him and he pulled her close.
“I love you.”
He gave her everything.
He was her forever family.