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WE ENDED UP staying in the hotel an extra week after Tess and Q returned to France.
We didn’t want to upset Aria by moving her so soon—not until she was ready.
Somehow, Pim had achieved the impossible and earned the little girl’s trust. They regularly sat for hours drawing nonsensical pictures which would make Pim nod and grab something Aria had asked for or for Aria to smile hesitantly.
She allowed me to come closer and sat beside me without flinching one night at dinner, and by the end of the second week, she eagerly sought out hugs from Pim and didn’t shy away when I hugged Pim in return.
When we finally took the plunge to take her back to our house in Monte Carlo, she blossomed.
The gardens became her favourite place to be, and Pim proved me right when I’d guessed she’d be an incredible mother. My heart somehow continued falling in love with both these girls, and for the first time in my life, my OCD faded in favour of just sitting and watching my new family.
A few months passed while we lived on the hill, and I grew itchy to be back on the ocean. One night, after Pim had put Aria to bed and we’d had a breakthrough with earning full-fledged laugh from our rescued daughter, she snuggled close in bed. “Let’s return to the Phantom, El. I’m missing the ocean. I want to show Aria how perfect it is chasing the summer on the waves.”
The fact she’d embraced what I loved and made it as important to her as it was to me made me clutch her hard and kiss her.
The idea of being able to show Aria the life beneath the sea thanks to a silly submarine and watch her tear into toys that’d been unopened for years just waiting for someone to play with them filled me with joy.
We spent most of the night making love rather than sleeping, but I embraced my tiredness the next day as I told Jolfer to prepare the Phantom for her next voyage.
Last month, the ship Alrik had commissioned me to build had finished, and I’d presented the keys to Pim with a mixture of relief and disgust. The Hammerhead was the final thing tying her to her past. She could afford to run it now thanks to having half of everything I had, but instead of accepting the yacht, she requested a courier bag and my mother’s address in New York.
That night, she wrote a letter to the woman who’d forgiven me but still maintained her distance, sealed the keys and photos of the immaculate yacht, then posted them. She never let me read what she said, but the morning we left the house on the hill and took Aria shopping for some last-minute necessities in Monte Carlo shops, I received a phone call that I never expected to receive.
My mother accepted the gift Pim had given her.
She accepted me.
She enquired after her new granddaughter and asked if we could meet somewhere for a holiday where we could all finally learn to live in this new future rather than the tainted past.
I couldn’t believe Pim had once again given me something so priceless, and fear filled my veins that something would go wrong. I feared Aria would hate the sea, or she’d miss her garden, or she’d never talk to me or give me her trust.
But as we stood as a family on the deck and Jolfer blew the horn and the Phantom disembarked from her long slumber, Aria lit up in a way I hadn’t seen on land.
I almost had a heart attack as my daughter, the girl of my dreams and keeper of my heart, took my hand and pulled me down to her level.
I stopped breathing as she pressed a kiss on my cheek before dashing off to stand at the railings and watch Monte Carlo fade into the distance.
Pim found me speechless, rubbing my cheek in shock.
“Did she speak to you?” she asked softly, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles.
Surveying my home, my wife, my family, I spun her around and kissed her lips. “She speaks as loudly as you did when you were silent, little mouse. One day, she might use her voice, but if that day never comes, we can understand her just fine.”
Pim returned my kiss, adding a layer of heat that ensured thoughts of watching the city disappear and enjoying a drink in the setting sun faded in favour of a private bedroom.
Aria must’ve heard my intention and didn’t approve of me stealing her mother away. Dashing over with Spot chasing her with his little pink tongue hanging out, she took both our hands and dragged us to the railing to wave goodbye to our house on the hill.
We were free.
We were safe.
We were a family, and no amount of pennies and dollars were needed because I had the two most priceless things on earth and was officially the richest bastard alive.
* * * * *
That night, as Pim showered after putting Aria to sleep, I checked my emails quickly to find one from Mercer.
One that made my heart whir and future unspool.
From: Q Mercer
To: E Prest
Subject: How Is The Little Life You Saved?
Bonsoir, Prest,
Are you ready to save another?
Regards,
Mercer
As Pim opened the bathroom door and walked toward me with steam curling behind her and her stunning chocolate hair wet against scared skin, I closed the laptop and dragged my wife into my arms.
Mercer had another child needing a family, and I had a boat with hundreds of spare rooms.
I grew hard and hot and pressed kisses to her eyelashes and lips before unwrapping her towel and cupping her breast.
She moaned, hugging me close.
“I love you, Tasmin.”
“I love you, El.”
I kissed her deep, grabbing her wrists and placing them above her head.
She smiled, sultry and dark, believing she knew where my intentions lay.
But I had something else on my mind first.
Something extremely pressing.
Dragging my lips along her throat, I murmured, “I have another question to ask you, wife. A very, very important question.”
