Page 56 of His Hidden Royal Heirs

The same things.

“How about today?”

“Get married? Today?”

She nodded. “I don’t want fanfare. I don’t want... anything but us. Promising each other. Because that will be all that matters. As we raise these children together, much will change. But we will believe in our promises, and I think that will make everything okay.”

He studied her for another moment. “Zia, I want to get married. I love you, but I want you to be certain. To be sure. I will marry you, if that’s what you want, but there should be love.I have always trusted my grandparents’ advice. And they have always said love is the foundation. We do not need to start with a ceremony. We can—”

“We started the second I laid eyes on you, and something inside me clicked...as if I knew. As if you were made exactly for me. And I have run from a lot in my life, but that certainty was the most confronting and frightening thing of all. Because I couldn’t protect myself on it, or martyr myself to it. And so I have spent all these months trying to convince myself I am not worthy of it.”

“Zia. You are beyond worthy.”

She didn’t know if she fully believed that just yet, but she had faith she would. Just as she had faith now that what she felt, what she had felt all along, was exactly this.

“I love you, Cristhian.” And more than the past few days of wondering, she felt so certain now. Because he’d cataloged what he loved about her, and she could so easily do the same. “Your...heart. The way you take care. Even when you are being overbearing and ridiculously heavy-handed, it is only because you are trying to do what is right, and I know too well how hard that can be. Now we can try to do right, together. Maybe leaning on each other will make it less hard.”

His mouth curved, and his smile was just like it had been at the bar that night. Charming, special,for her.

“I shall call the minister at once.”

EPILOGUE

THEYWERE,INFACT, married that day, with only staff members for an audience, and Cristhian’s grandparents and Beau on a video call. The twins were born two weeks later, healthy and perfect.

They named their son after the best man Cristhian had ever known. The newly minted Harrison Sterling would be told of his namesake, but encouraged to live his own, best life. They named their daughter after the woman who had helped set them free. Begonia Sterling, Bee to her loved ones, to avoid confusion.

When Bee met her aunt and namesake for the first time, it was obvious the two would be lifelong friends. And that the Sterlings were in for it.

And when the twins were old enough, they all flew to America, to the same house Cristhian’s grandparents had lived in since he’d been born. He was able to introduce his wife and children to the people who had given him everything, in a house he’d once visited with his own parents.

Grandma Connie, as she now insisted upon being called, cried as she held each little bundle. Pop couldn’t stop marveling at their size, making sure to read to them every night of their visit.

Grandma Connie even let Zia help with dinner preparation. A great honor indeed.

“It is such a lovely home you have,” Zia said, as she worked side by side in the small kitchen with his grandmother. She was beautiful and elegant always, a princess through and through. But she looked exactly right in his grandmother’s kitchen.

He’d known she would.

“You grew up in a castle, dear,” Grandmother said with a gentle scolding. “I’m sure this is nothing compared to that.”

“A castle, yes. Not a home. I didn’t have a home before Cristhian, before the children. And now I do, and much of that, I can tell, is thanks to you.”

If his grandparents hadn’t been willing to love her because he did before that, they certainly did now.

Both Zia and his grandmother looked over at where he sat helping his grandfather with a puzzle. And Cristhian knew that for the rest of his life, only the day Zia had married him and the birth of his children would hold a candle to this very moment in this place that meant so much to him.

Because the foundation of everything had started right here. With love. A love that he now got to pass down.

---