Epilogue
ADELINE
It was early fall in Chicago and the air was crisp, the trees lining the streets as beautiful as if they’d been professionally color graded.
I’d forgotten how gorgeous this time of year was here—and how cozy the entire city became, with everyone suddenly holding a coffee cup as they walked, wearing a sweater they technically didn’t need quite yet.
I left the Chicago Institute of Art, grinning like a loon after another successful meeting about the massive catalog of art back home.
Back home.
I still couldn’t believe I was living in a house filled to the brim with priceless art, but it was also so much more than that. It really had become home.
For a little while before we’d moved in, I’d been worried that we’d always feel like guests, but Westwood Manor had stopped feeling like Zach’s family’s house weeks ago.
Lu had claimed Charlotte’s old bedroom, Jennifer organized tea parties in the formal sitting room, and Amber often threatened bodily harm if anyone touched her espresso machine in the kitchen.
Between that and so many other things, the house had quietly become ours. We’d finally redecorated some, Zach and I buying furniture we actually liked together and painting a few of the walls.
Slowly but surely, we were bringing it into the modern age, but we were also careful to respect its history—a fact Theo was struggling to get behind. In his opinion, we should just rip it all out and install new everything, but neither of us had wanted that.
When we’d decided to live there and raise the girls in the house Zach had grown up in, I’d been a bit concerned about the other Westwoods’ reactions, but it turned out they were ecstatic the place would be staying in the family, and none of them had ever had any aspirations to move back in, it seemed.
Alex was relieved that the maintenance and upkeep would no longer be his concern and Douglas was overjoyed we were breathing new life into the place, apparently having been worried the kids would simply sell the old mausoleum once he was gone.
Literally the only caveat from anyone had been that we continue the tradition of hosting Friday night family dinners there.
Apparently, they hadn’t always been very good about it, but the last few years, they’d really been trying to keep it up and I was over the moon about getting to become a part of that.
Life had been coming at us fast since the weddings, but it was so beautiful that I rarely stopped smiling.
Honestly, sometimes, I still felt like I was living a dream.
I climbed into my car, Zach’s wedding present to me, still smiling as I turned over the engine and excited to share the news with him that the deal with the Institute was done.
Douglas and I were both thrilled to be moving some of his pieces to the museum. He’d even gotten all teared up when I’d told him that it was happening, and then he’d given me this long, tight, relieved hug and emotionally whispered thank you.
I’d honestly thought he’d forgotten about all those pieces since they’d been in the attic for so long, but nope. One day, while I’d been walking him through the catalog I’d compiled for them, he’d confessed that he’d been moved to buy each piece because he’d known his wife would’ve loved them.
Each one had made him feel closer to her, like he had a little part of her back, but it’d hurt him too much to look at them every day. He’d said he was honored to share her collection, and then he’d moved me to tears when he’d thanked me for ensuring that her legacy would live on.
W&S was also making a massive donation to the institute in honor of the Rochelle Westwood Collection showcase, and a hefty portion of that money had been allocated to bringing art to underprivileged kids. Zach had asked for that to be included, and thankfully, the Institute had agreed.
The drive home was beautiful, golden leaves covering the trees lining the streets and gray skies threatening rain but in that way that made the world feel quieter. Peaceful.
When I got to the house, I had a couple hours left before I had to pick the girls up from school. They’d started at Ellison Academy at the beginning of the school year a few weeks back and they were loving it. So much so that they were often disappointed to have to leave at the end of the day.
But since I still had some time before then, I slipped out of my coat and hung it up. Then I headed upstairs toward my study on the third floor, mentally preparing myself to spend the next few hours arguing with insurance databases as I continued trying to have the collection appraised.
When I reached the landing, however, I noticed Zach’s office door was open and I frowned. I’d thought he was at the office, but when I peeked inside, he was sitting behind his desk in a dark sweater with the sleeves pushed up, flipping through paperwork.
My heart did stupid little gymnastics as I looked at him, a smile spreading across my face. “I didn’t know you were working from home today.”
He glanced up, returning my smile with a wide one of his own. “There’s my wife. How was your meeting?”
Tingles still shot through me at that word. “It was good, but you first.”
“I wrapped up my accounts at the office and I had a few things to finish here, so I came back,” he said, his tone suspiciously casual. “Your turn. How’s your day been so far?”
I narrowed my eyes as I walked in, knowing for an absolute fact that when he had to try that hard to sound casual, he definitely wasn’t. There were papers spread all over the desk, and the second I stepped closer, he shuffled half of them into a folder.
“Uh-uh,” I said. “Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“You’re hiding something.”
He scoffed. “I’m literally sitting in my office, doing paperwork. How could I be hiding something?”
“You hid the paperwork.” I rounded the desk and reached for the folder, but he grabbed it first. I giggled but grabbed his wrist to keep him from jerking the folder away. “Give it to me.”
“No.” He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arm as far away from me as he could reach. “This isn’t mature, Adeline. It’s nothing.”
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be hiding it.”
“That’s…” He sighed, laughing as he caught me around the waist and hauled me directly into his lap. “Yeah, that’s probably fair.”
I cuddled into him, one of my arms sliding around his neck, but I was still eyeing the folder. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing nefarious.”
“Then why did you hide it like you’re trying to protect nuclear launch codes?”
“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” he admitted reluctantly. “I’m still working on it. I just didn’t realize you’d be home so soon.”
I groaned. “I hate surprises.”
“That’s unfortunate given that we’re parents,” he teased, bringing his mouth unfairly close to my ear. “Every day comes with surprises. Some good. Some bad. Sometimes, Jennifer cuts her own hair at midnight and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“That happened once.”
“She gave herself bangs. That sure surprised me the next morning.” He buried his face against my shoulder, laughing quietly, but with him so warm and all those lean, hard muscles against me, my hormones were dangerously close to taking over.
I touched his cheek when he looked back up at me, forcing myself to focus. “What are you up to? Is it illegal? Is that why you won’t tell me?”
Zach leaned back in his chair, blissfully ignoring my continued pleading for information. “It’s. A. Surprise.”
“You’re evil, but just know that if this surprise involves a horse, I’m saying no. I know the girls want a pony, but you can’t just give them everything they ask for as soon as they ask.”
“Why not?”
My eyes narrowed again. “So it does involve a horse?”
“It doesn’t.” He grinned. “It doesn’t involve a boat either.”
I frowned. “A boat?”
“Yeah. Jennifer has a friend whose dad has a boat. She wanted to know if we could get one too, but I told her I already had one. A yacht, but that counts as a boat, right?”
“Of course, you have a yacht. Who doesn’t?” I dropped my face into his shoulder and just breathed him in, still trying to comprehend that this was my life now, but ultimately, I didn’t care about ponies or yachts. I just wanted him—and for him to be honest with me. “What is it, Zach?”
He barked out a laugh so suddenly, I started. “You can’t take that tone with me, Adeline. Seriously, it’s not fair. This is nothing to get emotional about.”
I lifted my head for the express purpose of giving him a blank look. “Right now, everything is something for me to get emotional about.”
He let out a long, low groan and finally relented. “I’m planning a month-long trip to Europe for the four of us.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious? Why?”
“Jennifer wants to see castles and Lu wants to see, and I quote, the dead people under the cathedrals. I figured we could stay with Will and Eliza for part of it while we bop around.”
“Bop around?” I repeated.
He grimaced. “I was trying to sound spontaneous and whimsical. That’s romantic, right?”
“There’s nothing whimsical about going to live in your brother’s castle for a month while we hop around Europe. Also, spontaneous doesn’t usually come with an entire folder full of paperwork, but that might just be me.”
I still wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly though, too many emotions sneaking up on me all at once. A year ago, I’d been drowning, alone, and struggling to keep it together enough to get through every day.
Now, my daughters were happy, safe, and loved, and my husband was planning European vacations around crypts because our five-year-old preferred historical corpses over Disney princesses.
“I have a surprise too,” I admitted softly against his shoulder.
He pulled back slightly. “You do? What is it?”
My pulse jumped suddenly. I’d been carrying the envelope around in my purse, trying to figure out the perfect moment to tell him, and this definitely felt like it. Slowly, I reached into my bag and pulled out the black and white ultrasound pictures.
His features lit up immediately, softening and brightening simultaneously. “Is that…”
He knew I was pregnant. We’d found out the day after our fake wedding, but we’d been keeping it quiet for the past few months. The girls didn’t know yet and neither did the family.
It’d just been ours so far, a tiny little bubble of joy where only we knew, and selfishly, I’d loved it. Zach took the ultrasound photos carefully, like they might break if he moved too fast. “You already had the appointment?”
“Yesterday.”
He flicked his eyes up to mine, but he didn’t seem angry or annoyed. Just surprised. Reverent. Excited. “You didn’t tell me?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
His gaze darted over the images again, and he smiled. “I wish I could make out anything on these, but it’s the most gorgeous gray blob I’ve ever seen.”
I nodded, but I also felt a tiny pinch low in my stomach, that old fear ugly and instinctive. I knew Zach wasn’t Louis, but Jennifer had been a disappointment and Lu had been a disaster, and I hated that some part of me was still bracing for rejection.
Even now. Even with Zach.
“We’re having another girl,” I murmured, my voice so quiet it was practically a whisper as I waited for disappointment or anger.
For one horrible, split second, I even waited for that checked-out look Louis had gotten when he’d found out Lu was on the way. This awful, absent shimmer in his eyes as he’d nodded like that had been it—and it had.
Instead, Zach’s entire face lit up again, pure joy streaking across his eyes. “Oh, thank God.”
I blinked hard, shock making my heart trip and my face heat. “What?”
He looked genuinely emotional as he looked up at me. “I already put her on the waitlist for Ellison.”
I stared at him, completely and utterly dumbfounded. “You did what?”
“Yeah, well, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Oh, and I put her on the waitlist at the ballet studio too. Do you know how much money I had to donate to get the older girls in there? It was basically bribery. At least this way, no one can say I bought this one’s way in there too.”
I started laughing. “She hasn’t even been born yet.”
He grinned. “That’s absolutely no reason for her not to start getting ahead.”
“She’s the size of a peach.”
“Maybe, but she’s a very important peach. The most important peach who has ever peached.”
I laughed harder, tears suddenly burning behind my eyes as he pulled me against him again, kissing my forehead, my cheeks, and my mouth. I clung to him, unable to process how genuinely happy he was.
“I’m serious,” he said softly between kisses. “Another girl sounds perfect.”
The tears spilled over then, pure, overwhelming relief spiraling through me as I hugged him tightly and buried my face against his neck. It finally felt like everything was falling into place exactly like it should have from the beginning.
Zach and I were finally getting our happily ever after, and it was so much happier than I’d ever thought the girls and I could be—and it was all because of him, this wonderful, incredible man who had never stopped loving me.
***