A Scandal Made At Midnight

EPILOGUE

Three years later

THEVILLAWAS swarming with stylists, models and photographers, all determined to create the perfect photo opportunity for Ella Ash’s new fashion line, Cinders. After deciding social influencing was a bit too much like playing fairy godmother, Ella had gone into designing her own clothes, a mixture of frivolous and fun. She was an up-and-coming designer, considered ‘the one to watch’ by many fashion magazines, and when she’d asked Liane if she could have her first photo shoot at the villa in Umbria, Liane had told Alessandro and he’d laughingly rolled his eyes.

‘We have to say yes, don’t we?’

‘Considering she brought us together,’ Liane replied diplomatically, her eyes sparkling, ‘I think so.’

‘As long as she doesn’t turn Emilia’s head—’

‘Emilia is two years old,’ Liane reminded him with a laugh. ‘I think she’s a little young to be influenced by fashion and celebrity, although she does like sparkles.’

‘Just like her mother then, with her ridiculous shoes.’

Now, as they gazed out at the garden, Alessandro slipped an arm around her waist as Liane stood on her tiptoes for the kind of kiss she never tired of. The last three years had been the happiest of her life; they’d split their time between Paris, Rome and the villa in Umbria, until Emilia was born and they’d moved there permanently. Liane was attempting a new translation of Victor Hugo’s poetry while also caring for their daughter—and now another baby on the way, just a gentle bump beneath her flowing dress, a promise in the making.

She glanced around the villa’s gardens, various assistants and stylists scuttling here and there. They’d put the dogs in the kitchen—they had two—and their cat had just had kittens. On each of their anniversaries Alessandro had planted a lilac bush, until Liane had teased him that they would be overtaken—not that she minded. It was all she’d dreamed of and more, better than any fairy tale she could have dreamed up.

Not, she reflected as Emilia came running over to them and Alessandro scooped her up in his arms, hoisted her on his shoulders, that there hadn’t been challenges along the way as they’d come to know each other better, love each other more, because there had, but they’d been ones they’d faced together.

The fairy tale wasn’t a fairy tale, Liane reflected. It was real and messy and wonderful and hard, all at once. It was life...together.

‘Hey,’ Ella called as she practically bounced up to them, brandishing her phone. ‘We’re almost ready and you guys look so perfect...’ Liane glanced at Alessandro while he grimaced good-naturedly, tickling Emilia to make her laugh, and Ella, grinning, held her phone aloft.

‘Now smile!’