Page 177 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

‘Antonio,’ she whispered against his lips.

‘Again,’ he commanded without breaking the kiss.

She smiled, his mouth shifting around hers to try and capture it. ‘Antonio,’ she said again, and he relaxed against her as if all he’d needed was his name on her lips.

She loved him.

She loved him and was free in that love and it filled her and just kept filling her. There was no end to it. It was not finite. It just poured from her in waves that she would never want to stop.

‘I love you,’ she said, finally pulling back from the temptation of his lips and looking up into the deep brown eyes that had hypnotised her from the very beginning, before he looked down.

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be worthy enough to—’

‘You don’t have to earn anything from me. Not my admiration, not my respect, not my love. These feelings for you aren’t based on your worth or your value to me,’ she said, clinging to his shirt front with a vehemence she hoped he understood.

‘I left you in that hospital.’

‘I was the one who said it was not important,’ she said sadly, realising how much he had punished himself over this.

‘I made it impossible for you to say otherwise,’ he insisted. ‘I should have come for you.’

‘What would you have done? If you’d been there at the hospital?’

‘I would have made sure you got the best medical help.’

‘Ididget the best medical help. And the rest was on me.’

‘But your home…’

‘Was mine for the time I needed it,’ she said simply. ‘You? You are my homefor ever,’ she said.

He took her hand and flattened her palm against his heart, placing his own over hers, and pressed his forehead against hers, his breath shuddering out of his chest in a sigh that felt as if it had been held for years.

‘Dio mio, I love you, and I promise to show you just how much, every single day for the rest of my life.’

Her heart soared in her chest, just one thought coming back to anchor her. ‘Antonio, what about Maria? What’s going to happen to her? And Gallo Group? Will it go to Micha?’

He swallowed. ‘I honestly don’t know. But we’ll make sure that, whatever happens, she’ll be okay,’ he said, the words another vow that Ivy felt to her bones, and one that she echoed. She wasn’t sure how she’d be able to help, but if there was anything she could do, she’d do it. Maria was Antonio’s family. Her family now.

She looked back up at him. ‘Yes, we will,’ she told him. ‘But what do we donow?’ she asked in a whisper, realising that they were beginning to draw attention, wrapped up in each other in the middle of the court corridor. He finally released her but held out his arm for her to take and began to lead them out of the courthouse.

‘How do you feel about children?’ Antonio asked as if he were inviting her out for dinner.

Simon spluttered behind them.

‘Four,’ Ivy replied easily and instinctively.

‘Oh, at least,’ Antonio replied with a smile on his face that stole her breath.

This was her husband. The man she had married six years ago for all the wrong reasons, but who had returned to her to show her the true power of love.

EPILOGUE

Ten years later…

Antonio had beenright when he’d said that marriage took a million small things each day, Ivy thought as she stepped out into the garden of their villa in Tuscany. The sun was high in the sky, the dappled light being filtered through the leaves rustling on the breeze. Ivy was extremely happy as she placed the cool jug of lemonade on the long wooden table that was big enough to seat their entire sprawling family. Though they were considering adding another smaller table to the garden for all the children.

As well as the four children she and Antonio had, there were Maria and Micha’s three, and Enzo, Gio’s other grandson, would be bringing his three children and his wife Erin, who was pregnantagainwith their fourth. It seemed that the Gallos’ proliferation was still rife in the family.

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