Epilogue
HARPER
Iknock on Alex’s door.
“Come in,” he calls.
I enter, bouncing Bobby on my hip as I go, trying to untangle my hair from his tight fist.
“Sorry,” I say as Alex looks up. “Andie isn’t at her desk, and someone wanted to see his daddy.”
He’s up and around his desk in seconds, encasing us both in his arms and dropping a kiss on my lips before turning to kiss our son’s head.
“My two favourite people, you can interrupt anytime.”
Bobby wriggles and squirms to get to his dad.
“Hey, gorgeous boy,” Alex says, scooping him out of my arms and raising him high into the air. “How’s daddy’s favourite little boy?”
Alex tosses him gently into the air, eliciting peals of giggles. Bobby grabs his cheeks and squeals with delight.
At six months old, he’s full-on, a perfect combination of the two of us, and the apple of the eye of all his aunts, uncles, and cousins.
“Are you ready for this evening?”
“Yes, Elise and I have been working flat out. The exhibition is breathtaking. St Clair, old and new, side by side through the ages.”
“Has your family landed?”
“They have. They’re on their way to the hotel as we speak. They’ll see us there. Mum is heading to the apartment because she wants as much Bobby time as she can get,” I say.
Although Alex’s apartment is big enough, having siblings, partners, and children all together is more than any of us wants to handle. Instead, they’ve taken over the family suite, as well as every other suite on the top floor of the hotel.
“Anyway, I’m heading over to the museum now. Are you sure you’re okay to collect Bobby from the creche?”
“Of course, stop worrying,” he says, dropping another kiss on my nose.
“Excellent. Then I’d better get this little man downstairs.”
Alex has opened a creche in the building, employing the best childcare he could find.
It’s been a hit, taking the pressure off staff members with young families, especially during the holidays, when we employ additional staff to run holiday camps.
It also meant that Andie could take over my role as Alex’s PA.
She loved fashion, but two months after I quit night school, she realised she wasn’t cut out to be a designer.
When I returned to New York, we met up and I found she was temping as a PA. The rest is history.
I give Alex one last kiss before leaving and returning Bobby— Robert Edward Bianchi— back to his childminders.
* * *
“Are you ready?” Elise asks.
“Absolutely,” I say, sucking in a deep breath.
“Then let’s do this.”
We walk out together. Tonight is the preview of St Clair through the ages, from its inception in the early nineteen hundreds to the present day.
It’s opening night, and the exhibition is full of members of the press, buyers, and clients.
“This is quite something, Ms Frazer,” a voice says close to my ear, goosebumps running up my arms.
I turn my head and smile at the man who has made every one of my dreams come true and continues to love me in a way I once only dreamed was possible.
“Elise did a lot of the work,” I say.
“And she told me the same about you. Mutual appreciation, I think.”
Elise has been amazing. I joined the company’s internship programme after I returned from England and before Bobby was born. She’s helped me develop my skills, taking my designs and turning them into St Clair masterpieces.
“Come on, Ms Frazer, it’s time to put on a show.”
We step onto the platform together in front of our guests, and Alex does what he does best.
* * *
We walk quietly through the exhibition, our guests having long gone.
I stop us in front of one of the glass cases.
“I love this dress,” I say, staring at the one-of-a-kind dress Alex designed for me, positioned next to the gown his grandfather designed for his grandmother.
“I had a great inspiration,” he says, smiling down at me, before pulling me against him.
He refused to allow the design to be copied or sold, despite high demand for it to be added to the collection. It is ours.
“I love you, Mr Bianchi. I love everything you’ve given me and everything you’ve done.”
He smiles. “The feeling is entirely mutual. I love you, Ms Frazer, more than I ever thought possible.”
I pull back, and he frowns, his mouth dropping slightly as I lower myself onto one knee.
“When I met you, I never envisaged where our lives would take us. I was lost, miles away from family and friends, but with you, I found a home— my home. I love you, Alessandro Bianchi, with every ounce of my being. Will you make me the happiest woman alive by marrying me?”
His hands slide under my arms as he hauls me up and against him, his mouth finding mine and igniting a longing, and passion that has never dwindled since that first time.
“Thank God,” he says when we finally break apart, his forehead resting against mine. “I thought I was going to have to break my promise.”
I throw back my head and laugh, knowing how much Alex likes to control every situation and how many hints he’s been dropping about us getting married.
“I take it that’s a yes?” I say.
“Damn right it is. Yes, yes, yes. I love you, Harper Brooke Frazer. I accept the challenge of being your husband, of loving you and making you smile until the day I die.”
I gaze up at the man who changed some of the worst moments of my life into the best memories a woman could ever ask for.
“I love you too, now, forever and always, Mr Bianchi, and I can’t wait to be your wife.”
* * *