“I love you, Vivi.”
She laughed and cried again, saying, “I love you, too, but it d-doesn’t mean I w-won’t punish you for the hell you put me through.”
He kissed the top of her head, murmuring hoarsely against her hair, “Anything you wish, cara.”
“Good,” she whispered against his chest. “Because I want the mushiest monthsary date ever, to make up for the last one.”
His shoulders rocked with silent laughter, but his voice was tight with emotion as he told her, “You have my word.”
Epilogue
Saturday. She could feel it in her bones. Today was going to be the most romantic day ever, since today was that day. When she opened her eyes, she fully expected to see a spectacular surprise awaiting her, like maybe rose petals thrown all over the room, or a love letter on the desk—-
But there was none of that.
Their bedroom looked exactly the same, and there wasn’t a sign of any kind of surprise.
A thought occurred to her, and she immediately checked under her bed, but again she saw nothing. Ah, maybe he had hidden something in her closet.
Hurrying out of the bed, she padded barefoot towards the walk-in closet she shared with Luca and threw the doors open one by one. But again, everything looked exactly like it should.
Telling herself that maybe Luca had a bigger and more romantic surprise in store for her, she took a quick shower and then raced to the kitchen to prepare Eula’s lunchbox. There was still no sign of Luca anywhere in the house, which finally forced her to ask the housekeeper if she knew what time Luca had left.
“He was in his study when he received a call, Mrs. Valencia. It appeared quite urgent as he left soon after.”
When she took Eula to school for her special classes, Vivian noticed the way the other parents were glancing at her more curiously than usual. Maybe her name or Luca’s had found its way to the tabloids again, she thought. The last crazy rumor had him linked to a Hollywood starlet while another report made it seem like she was having an affair with a baseball athlete behind Luca’s back.
And that was just because someone had overheard her agreeing with Maggie about the same athlete being cute, she thought ruefully. The first time she had read the blind item about her, it had embarrassed her to no end.
“He’s eighteen,” she had exclaimed to her husband, utterly aghast that reporters could be so sleazy and link her to someone so much younger.
Lucas had drawled lazily, “How can I be sure that this is not true, Vivi?”
“Stop teasing me,” she protested.
“After all, you did say that he was cute.”
And that was when she had noticed the glint in his eyes and realized that her billionaire husband was actually jealous of a boy almost half his age and nowhere near as beautiful as he was.
Just remembering the memory made her giddy, and Vivian was tempted to pinch herself. Even now, she couldn’t believe that such the smallest things could make her husband feel jealous over her. It boggled her mind, really, how someone like Luca could even think she had any reason to stray.
She was still smiling when she reached the limousine, where she saw the chauffeur waiting for her. About to call out to him, she noticed him staring up at the billboard across the school with a look of wonder on his face and curiously glanced up as well.
Her jaw dropped.
A CCTV-produced photo of her and Luca at the photocopying room filled up every inch of the billboard, but then there was the caption below—-
I fell in love with my wife when she was working as a cleaner and she simply thought of me as the guy who did some photocopying.
“Oh my God.” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but then she saw more parents staring at her from the school. She hurried towards the limousine and practically dove inside it. When the chauffeur closed the door and got to his seat, she asked him quickly, “Do you know where Luca is?”
“At the office, Mrs. Valencia. Shall I take you there?”
“Yes, please.”
“Right away, ma’am.” As they turned around the corner, the driver cleared his throat. “You might or might not want to look at your left, ma’am.”
“Why?” But she was already turning her head to her left as she spoke—-
Her jaw dropped again.
It was a second billboard, and this time it was of their wedding, with Luca still wearing his lipstick-drawn mustache.
The caption: I asked her to marry me, and when she said yes, we had our wedding two days later. She could have asked me for the moon and the stars, and I would have found a way to give it to her. But instead, she asked me if I could just look a little ‘uglier’ on our wedding day. Indeed, no one is like my wife, and for that I will always love her.