Yours for Christmas - Page 45

My voice drifts off, and I slide my hand from her thigh to her abdomen.

With one hand still cupping my face, Ada places a palm over my hand on her stomach, intertwining my fingers with mine. “You want the baby?” she whispers, hope blooming over her face.

“Want it?” I laugh. “Ada, I’m desperate for it. Desperate for you. Did you hear me? I love you. Completely. I never want to let you go. I never want to watch you walk away from me again.”

“Technically, you walked away from me.” She grins, squeezing my hand. Then, biting her lip, she blinks two tears free from her eyes. “I think I might love you, too.”

Our story is messy. It’s backwards. It’s fast and tangled and not at all what I would have expected. But in Ada’s eyes I see the truth, even if her words are hesitant.

She loves me. She loves me. The mother of my child, my future wife, the woman who dragged me out of the bitterness of my own past—she loves me. Me! How did I ever deserve this? How could I have gained not only a wife, but a child, too?

Leaning over to lay a kiss on my lips, Ada smiles. “Come on,” she says. “We do presents on Christmas Eve at my house. I’m sure my mother will have rustled something up for you, too.”

“You’re my gift this year,” I say, letting a smile stretch over my lips. My heart thumps hard, reminding me that I’m alive. That I have a future with Ada. That I have a child on the way, and I’ll do everything in my power to provide for my baby. Our baby.

I spend Christmas with the Belcourts, then marry Ada a week later. We spend every single day together, walking through snow-covered fields and admiring the crisp, blue skies that seem even bluer in the cold weather. I kiss her often, telling her I love her multiple times a day. How could I not? I never thought I’d feel this way. I never thought I’d have this.

A wife. A family.

Happiness.

I don’t stay stuck at the Blythe Estate anymore. I go to every concert that Ada puts on. We go to the theatre and the ballet. We go see movies. We become fixtures in the tabloids, which makes Ada laugh.

“They don’t need to explain my relation to the royal family anymore.” She giggles, pointing to the newspaper. She looks cute with her cheeks tinged pink from the cold weather and her eyes shining bright. I kiss the tip of her nose.

As our child grows inside her, so too does my love for her bloom. If I thought this was just a passing attraction, I’m proven wrong every single day. Whenever I wake up with my wife’s arm slung across my chest, or I get to kiss her soft lips and feel her swelling belly under my palm, I know this is real. It’s deep. It’s everlasting.

Our son is born the first week of September, exactly forty weeks after that fateful Christmas ball, on a particularly warm autumn day. Ada is gorgeous and strong and I fall in love with her all over again. The past nine months have shown me what it means to live.

We name him Paul, after my brother. He’s perfect.

The case against Count Gregory is strong, and he’s sentenced to sixty years in prison on multiple counts of fraud and embezzlement. His crimes turn out to be so egregious that the judge uses him as an example, giving a damning speech at the sentencing hearing. It makes waves around the world, with his sneering face plastered on the front page of every major newspaper.

Truth be told, Gregory’s conviction has little impact on the pharmaceutical companies and research institutions that developed harmful drugs with him, but I decide his punishment is a good enough start. Fighting against unsafe drugs will be my crusade, and I’ll fight it gladly—as long as Ada is by my side.

After all, if not for Gregory I might not have had the courage to shed my fears and pursue love. Pursue Ada. I would have let her slip through my fingers and I’d have stayed tucked away in my own estate, cursing the world.

Our next Christmas is spent at the Belcourt Estate. Kiera ends up attending Farcliff University, studying medicine. Maggie’s foot heals, and she continues dancing. Their parents accept me with open arms, and I finally feel like I have a family again.

With a four-month-old baby in her arms, Ada sits next to the big Christmas tree in the Belcourt living room, looking like a goddess. She picks up a small envelope and hands it to me, smiling. “Merry Christmas, my love.”

I tilt my head, staring at her curiously.

She smiles, nodding for me to open the envelope as she bounces baby Paul in one arm. Is it wrong that I think she looks hot right now?

Tearing my eyes away from my wife, I open the envelope and pull out an invoice. Frowning, I read it, recognizing my parents’ piano-making business letterhead. “What’s this?”

“I made inquiries,” Ada says, smiling. “All the craftsmen who worked for your parents missed making Blythe pianos. They all agreed to come back, and one of them even knew an old client who wanted a new instrument.” She nods to the invoice. “That’s the first order for the second generation of Blythe pianos.”

My throat grows tight. Eyes mist. I can’t even see Ada clearly now, only a vague form of her rocking our child in her arms. “You… Is this real? They want to come back?”

“Everyone read the news, Heath,” she says softly, coming to sit beside me. “They all wanted to stand by you. They know you respect the business, and the only reason you shut it down was to pursue the investigation against Gregory. But that’s over now.” She nudges her shoulder against mine. “We can move on. Together.”

Wiping my eyes with the heels of my palms, I shake my head. “Ada…” Emotion chokes me. When my vision clears, I see her smiling at me, and my heart erupts.

“I love you,” I say, kissing her. “So much.”

“Okay, okay!” Kiera shouts from across the room. “Get a room or hand out another Christmas present to someone else. I don’t want to watch a make-out session.”

Giggling, Ada pulls away. I throw my arm over her shoulders, letting out a deep breath. In this room, with Ada, our son, and my new family, I know I have everything I’ll ever need.

Ada leans her head on my shoulder, and I kiss her temple.

My love. My Ada. Forever.

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