the wedding, but I invited very few celebrities and socialites. It was an intimate affair, but we did release a few pictures to the public afterward.
Shortly after the wedding, I retired from public life. Dante and I moved to a small cottage in the Farcliff countryside, away from prying eyes and overzealous photographers.
It was the peace and quiet we needed to recover from the chaos that our life had been. In that cottage, Dante and I got to know each other again. We made love often, as much as possible, and laughed every chance we got.
We acquired three dogs and a cat. The cat was a stray that followed Dante home one day, and the dogs came from a rescue in Farcliff run by Queen Elle’s adoptive father. All four animals adored Hope from the instant they met her.
Ivy and Luca came to see us about once a month to escape the hectic running of Spoonful of Sugar.
Hunter and Beckett were both imprisoned for life. I never visited either of them, and after my baby was born, I didn’t give them much thought. Neither men deserved my attention, and I was happy to leave them in my past.
On our two-year anniversary, Dante and I dropped Hope off with her cousins, and Dante took me on a trip to Argyle. King Theo reserved one of the royal islands for us, and we finally had a long-awaited honeymoon weekend.
I’m not ashamed to say I missed Hope so much that I cried on the entire plane ride. In three years, a weekend vacation would be the longest I’d spent away from my daughter.
What can I say? I’m a mother.
Once I saw the clear blue waters and the palm trees, and once I felt the feather pillows and the impossibly comfortable bed, though, my mood changed.
The first night, we just slept.
When we woke up, Dante and I made love to the sounds of the ocean waves lapping the shore. I came in his arms, and I knew there was no one luckier than me.
When we lay tangled in the bedsheets, Dante stroked my face and let out a sigh. “I want another kid,” he told me, smiling hopefully.
My chest tightened, and I gulped down my anxieties. “Dante…”
“I know,” he interrupted. “It’s too much of a risk with the Huntington’s gene.”
I nodded, unable to answer. We still didn’t know if Hope had the disease—we had to wait until she turned eighteen and got the genetic testing done for herself. It was a fifty-fifty chance, and I just couldn’t bear the thought of risking it with another child.
“What about adoption?” Dante asked, trailing his fingers over my skin.
My eyes widened, and my heart exploded. I kissed Dante, then, and my love for him multiplied. This man had such a big heart that not only did he take Hope on as his own child, but he wanted more kids to love, even if they weren’t his own.
He also took me, flaws and all, and made it his life’s purpose to love me just as I loved him.
So, we adopted three more children over the course of the next five years. Our little cottage in the woods soon ran out of space, and we finally moved back to the city to be closer to Ivy and Luca. By that time, media attention around me and Dante had died down to nothing, and we were able to live a normal life.
The Huntington’s Disease Society of Farcliff grew to support hundreds of people living with the disease as well as their carers. Dante was a champion of the cause, reminding me every day with his dedication to the HDSF that he was doing this for me.
I never doubted him again. For the rest of our days, Dante never faltered. He was never afraid as my illness progressed, and never fearful of the future. He was by my side, always.
Even when my tremors got worse. Even when I had trouble walking. Even when my mood swings became more extreme, and I started truly fearing the end.
He was there beside me, loving me fully and unconditionally.
Now, eighteen years after Hope’s birth, she sits across from Dante and me with an envelope in her hands. My daughter takes a shaking breath, dragging her eyes up to mine.
“I’m scared.”
“I know, honey,” I say, leaning against Dante. “You can do it. Trust me, it’s better to know for sure.”
When Hope rips the envelope open, my heart falters. If I passed on the disease to my