EPILOGUE
THEY were married in Venice, the wedding gondola decked out in black and crimson with highlights of gold. The cushions were made of silk and satin, the upholstery plush velvet. And while the gondolier himself looked resplendent in crisp attire, propelling the vessel with an effortless looking rhythm, it was to the bride sitting beaming alongside her proud father that every eye was drawn.
It was the bride from whom Luca couldn’t tear his eyes.
His bride.
Valentina.
She stepped from the vessel in a gown befitting the goddess that she was, honey gold in colour, a timeless one-shouldered design, skimming her breasts before draping softly to the ground, both classic and feminine, the necklace of amber beads Luca had given her at her throat.
They married in the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, the opera house where they had seen La Traviata, the night Tina had felt the ground move beneath her feet and realised she had fallen in love with Luca. Her father gave her away, passing her hand to Luca’s with a grudging smile, before taking his place in the front and curling his fingers possessively around those of his guest, none other than Deidre Turner. Tina smiled, happy for her father, happier for herself when the service began, the ceremony that would make her Luca’s bride.
And if the wedding was magnificent, the reception was a celebration, held in the refurbished palazzo where Luca had grown up. Now restored to its former glory, its piers strengthened and renewed, its façade was as richly decorated as it once had been, befitting one of the oldest families in Venice.
‘It’s such a beautiful wedding,’ said Lily to her daughter with a wistful sigh as the pair touched up their lipstick in the powder room together. ‘But then you look beautiful, Valentina. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a radiant bride.’
Tina hadn’t been able to stop smiling all day, but now her smile widened as she turned towards her mother. ‘I love him, Lily. And I’m so very happy.’
Her mother took her daughter’s hands in hers. ‘It shows. I’m so proud of you, Valentina. You’ve grown into a wonderful woman, and I’m just sorry for all the grief I’ve caused you along the way. But I promise I will be a better mother to you—I am the same person, but I am trying to change, I am trying to be better.’
‘Oh, Lily.’ Tears sprang to her eyes and she blinked them away as Lily swung into action and passed her tissues before she tested the limits of her waterproof mascara.
‘And now I’ve made you cry! Sacre bleu! That will not do. So let me tell you something instead to make you smile—Antonio was so moved, he proposed to me right after the ceremony.’
Tina gasped, her tears staunched by the surprise announcement. ‘And?’
‘I said yes, of course! I can’t hope to change everything about me at once.’ And then they were both reaching for the tissues, they were laughing so hard.
‘Lily’s agreed to marry Antonio,’ she told Luca, as he spun her around the ballroom’s centuries-old terrazzo floor.
Luca smiled down at her. ‘Do you think Mitch will agree to give her away too?’
‘I don’t know,’ she reflected, as she watched her father spin past them with Deidre, their gazes well and truly locked. ‘There’s a good chance he might be otherwise engaged.’
Luca laughed, and hugged her closer. ‘You don’t mind then, that you might lose your father to another woman?’
‘Not a chance. I’m happy for him. Besides—’ she turned her face up to his ‘—look at all I’ve won. I must be the luckiest woman in the whole world.’
‘I love you,’ he said, whirling her around. ‘I will always love you.’
His bride beamed up at him, felt her amber eyes misting. ‘I love you too,’ she pledged, ‘with all my heart.’
His eyes darkened, his mouth drew closer, but she stilled him with a fingertip to his lips. ‘But wait! That’s not all I have to tell you. There’s more.’
She leaned up closer to his ear and whispered the secret she’d been longing to share ever since she’d found out, and Luca responded the way she’d hoped, by whooping with joy as he spun her around the floor in his arms until she was drunk with giddiness. And then he stopped spinning and kissed her until she was giddy all over again, but this time on the love fizzing through her veins.
And both of them knew the day could not have been more perfect, and yet still it was nothing compared to what happened seven months later.