Epilogue
JULIA
“Here, take my arm…”
“Antonio, I’m okay,” I say with a slight laugh as I step out of the car. “I appreciate the concern, but I’m just pregnant. My legs still work.”
“Yeah, well, I’d still rather you took my arm.”
I do as I’m told, knowing that his fussing over me is not going to get any better unless I give him what he wants. I raise my eyebrows at him playfully, pulling myself upright as we head to the door of the clinic. “There. Happy now?”
“Much happier,” he replies, grinning, and we make our way up the steps and through the glossy glass doors of the maternity clinic where I’m going to have my scan.
And not just any scan. No, in fact, this is the scan where we find out the gender of the baby, which I have been damn near beside myself with excitement about since I woke up this morning.
I’ve gone back and forth on whether I actually want to know, but eventually, I had to admit that I was desperate—if only so I could decide exactly how I was going to decorate the nursery now that we have the house.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to go for a yellow design that’s roughly gender-neutral anyway, but I want to be able to pick up a few toys and clothes suitable for whatever gender our baby turns out to be.
Our baby. God, I will never get tired of those words crossing my mind, the enormous, thrilling weight they carry with them.
When I first found out I was pregnant, it felt like the world was crashing in around me, but now?
Now, it’s like everything is falling into place.
I might never have imagined having a child this young, but at the same time, I don’t want to wait to start my future with Antonio.
We’re married, after all, and what comes after marriage?
A beautiful brood of kids to fill our house with laughter and love and life.
Antonio takes me to sit down and signs us in, and then comes back to sit beside me, arm around my shoulders.
I can see him glancing around the room, no doubt scoping out if anyone is a threat to us.
I don’t blame him, given that it was a doctor who outed the pregnancy to Andreo in the first place, but I feel like he has less to concern himself with now.
“Antonio,” I murmur to him gently. “I think we’re past the point of being able to hide that I’m pregnant, huh?” I lay a hand on my belly pointedly, and that draws a smile to his face at last.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he agrees, covering my hand with his and giving it a squeeze.
He has hardly been able to keep his hands off my belly, sliding up behind me in the kitchen and resting his palms on it while I’m making my singular coffee in the morning.
When I teased him about it, he reminded me that he had never been there through the pregnancy part before, and he just wanted to make the most of it.
When he put it like that, it was hard to argue with him. And besides, it has salved any worries I might have had about him not finding my new pregnant body attractive the way he did before…
“Gattuso?”
The doctor calls out our name, and I look up.
I’ve taken Antonio’s name now, in preparation for the baby’s birth, and it always makes me smile when I hear it instead of the last name I inherited from my parents.
A reminder of the new family that we’re trying to build together, untethered by the memories of everything that happened in the past.
We stand up and head over to the room where the scan will be taking place, and the doctor greets me with a smile, gesturing for me to sit down as she pulls on a pair of gloves.
“How have you been feeling?” she asks, as she rolls up the bottom of my shirt.
I nod. “Yeah, pretty good,” I reply. “I was getting a bit sick in the mornings a few weeks back, but that seems to have figured itself out by now…”
Antonio strokes my hair as I speak, not interrupting or trying to add his own two cents. It’s one of the aspects of him that I’ve come to appreciate so much, the way he truly listens to me and trusts me and lets me take the lead where the time is right.
Andreo was always quick to steamroller me and make me feel as though I was a fool for even thinking that I could offer my thoughts on something, but his father is the complete opposite.
If I ever need the assurance that the two of them could not have been further apart from one another, I get it at nearly every turn.
“Okay, so, you said you want to find out the gender, is that right?” the doctor asks, as she consults the files she has pulled up on her computer screen.
My heart skips a beat, and I bite my lip and nod, exchanging a glance with Antonio in the process. “Yeah, we do…”
“Exciting,” she replies with a grin. “So, shall we get started?”
I squeeze Antonio’s hand as she sets about smearing the jelly on my stomach and then pulling out the ultrasound wand.
She turns a small screen next to the bed toward us, so we can see where she’s working.
It’s not the first time that I’ve seen my baby, of course, but my heart still skips a beat when I lay eyes on them, all curled up inside of me, starting to take shape into a tiny little person.
Hi there, sweetheart, I’m your mommy…
“Okay, so, I think…yes, I’m sure,” the doctor announces. “You’re going to have a little baby girl.”
My hand flies to my mouth, tears pricking my eyes at once.
I don’t think I realized it until that moment, but it’s exactly what I was hoping to hear.
A little girl. I would have adored this child no matter what, but this feels like a chance to put so much right—to bring things full circle, to be able to give her the childhood and girlhood that I dreamed of when I was little.
“Are you alright?” Antonio asks, and I nod. He glances to the doctor. “Would you give us a moment?”
“Of course,” she agrees, rising to her feet and cleaning off my belly before she leaves the room. I turn to Antonio, heart fluttering with excitement, the image of my little girl already burned on to my brain.
“A baby girl,” I whisper to him, and he cups my face in his hands.
“A baby girl,” he repeats, and he leans down to drop a kiss on my forehead. I wrap my arms around him, holding him right, reminding myself that he’s the reason all of this is happening—he’s the person who will raise this child with me, her father, the father she deserves.
“I can’t believe it,” I whisper to him. “A daughter. We’re going to have a daughter.”
When he draws back, he takes my hands in his and kisses them. “And she’s going to be just as beautiful and brilliant as her mother,” he replies.
My heart swells. Know that he believes in me like that, that he has my back in such a profound way…I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it. I gaze up at him for a second, drinking him in, soaking in the moment as best I can.
My husband, the father of my child. The love of my life.
“I love you,” I whisper, and he grins, the same way he always does when I say those words, as if they haven’t lost any part of their appeal over all the times I’ve said them.
“I love you too,” he replies.
And as he pulls me into another embrace, I think of my sweet child, my sweet little girl, growing inside of me.
The last part of our family to slot into place, before everything is perfect.
After feeling so lost, feeling like I would never have a place to call mine, I know that I have found it—and it’s right here, in his arms.
Where I belong.
The End.
P.S. Looking for your next binge read? I have a feeling you’ll love Claimed by the Pakhan! Swipe to the next page for a little sneak peek…