Epilogue
Five years later—the Caribbean villa
Hope heard the sounds of children playing in the distance. Splashing in the sea. Squealing. She was lying on a day bed soaking up the heat in the sun, under the shade of a huge umbrella.
‘Chloe, don’t splash Louis. It’s not very nice.’
‘But, Papa, he splashed me first.’
Hope could hear the pout in their four-year-old daughter’s voice and smiled.
‘Yes, but you are older and wiser, asteri mou, and you know better.’ Hope heard the sound of a kiss.
‘OK, Papa.’ Chloe sounded happily resigned to her fate as the eldest and most responsible sibling. But that was where any comparison with anything Axel had experienced ended and Hope gave thanks for that every day.
There was a sound of leaves rustling and Hope cracked open her eyes and looked up to see a gorgeous six-foot-something specimen of a Greek god looking down at her, hands on his narrow hips and wearing trunks that weren’t short enough in her opinion.
She grinned at him. ‘Sterling parenting there, Mr Drakos.’
He grinned back and reached down to take her hands and tug her up so that he could sit behind her and pull her back into his chest. He put his hands over her growing belly. She was five months pregnant with their next baby. Another girl.
Hope sighed with contentment. ‘I’ll get up in a minute and bring them in for lunch.’
Axel kissed her head. ‘They’re fine for now. Candice’s niece is watching them.’
Hope could see that she was, playing with the twins, Louis and Max, and instructing Chloe to help her build a castle.
Having twins had spurred Hope to start the search for her mother and she knew now that she could take whatever came—with Axel’s love and support behind her.
His support had also helped her to sit her A levels and she’d passed with flying colours, and was now almost a fully qualified interior designer. Having numerous residences to practise on did help.
They were based mainly in London but moved between there and Athens and New York. And here, their slice of paradise.
Axel had taken to parenting like a duck to water. Kind, patient, imaginative, endlessly playful and unbelievably supportive.
He’d reached out to his siblings and Hope had been there for the emotional reunions he’d had with them, where he’d been totally honest. The most emotional had been with Ares.
And now all of his siblings were a part of the company in a way that allowed Axel to step back and spend more time with his family.
There was an extended network of cousins. Nothing gave Hope more joy than to see them all together playing and taking it completely for granted.
And they’d all be reunited again very soon when they joined them here on the island for their annual get-together.
One of many. Axel had bought up the villas on either side of theirs and now they belonged to his sisters and Ares, who could come here with his queen and enjoy seclusion and a chance to feel normal.
Hope and her sisters-in-law had all become good friends, but she’d created a really special bond with Ares’s wife, Queen Cassie. They had twins too and she was also pregnant again. It tickled Hope to think that one of her besties was an actual royal queen.
‘Damian and his wife are coming over for dinner tonight.’
Axel’s chest rumbled at her back. Hope said, ‘Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing Maria.’ Another good friend.
Baros had, of course, sought Axel out anyway, despite Axel’s initial decision not to expand. They’d gone into business together and Drakos Solutions had become one of the most powerful companies in the world.
They’d bought a villa on the other side of the island too and were regular visitors with their family.
Sometimes their lives were so full of love and happiness that it scared Hope a little but Axel would see it and take her aside and say, ‘I know, me too, but we deserve this, Hope, to be happy and feel love and give love and make others happy.’
And it was that reminder that they were not taking anything for granted and doing their best to heal the hurts of the past that made her feel grounded again.
There was a sound and suddenly Chloe appeared, freckled and sun-kissed. Her hair was bright blonde, taking after her mother, but she had her father’s dark eyes that could turn from green to gold from one moment to the next.
‘Mama, I’m hungry.’ She climbed onto the lounger and snuggled into Hope and her father and then the twins saw this and toddled over, joining in the pile-on.
For a few seconds, before all hell broke loose again, Hope closed her eyes and stretched her arms around her children, breathing in the love and happiness, and Axel spread his arms around them all. ‘I love you,’ he whispered for her ears only.
She smiled and tipped her head back to look up at him. ‘I love you too.’
She had created her fantasy and it was so much richer than she ever could have imagined.
* * * * *