“Can I press the button?” Evan asks, and I nod as I lift him into my arms so he can reach the panel. He wraps his arms around my neck, and I carry him as we head toward Valentina’s office, Isabella ten steps ahead of us. I have no idea where she gets all of that energy. She’s like a fucking whirlwind.
“Mommy!” she shouts.
Valentina looks up from her desk and smiles, her face lighting up as Bella runs around her desk and jumps into her arms. “My baby,” she murmurs as she kisses Isabella’s cheek.
Evan jumps out of my arms to join in, and I sigh as I stand back, defeated and abandoned. “What about me?” I ask, but the kids just ignore me. The moment they saw their mother, they just abandoned me. I guess I can’t blame them.
Valentina smiles up at me, her gaze lingering. “I love you, Luca,” she tells me. Fuck. Hearing that really never gets old. Throughout the years, we’ve gone through so many phases in our lives together, but each of them brought us closer. I thought I couldn’t love her more than I did ten years ago, yet each day, my love for her continues to grow.
I walk up to my family and lean in to press a soft kiss on my wife’s forehead. “I love you more, baby,” I murmur, my lips brushing over her ear. “I’ll show you just how much tonight,” I whisper.
“Mommy!” Isabella says, and I pull away, enjoying the way her cheeks still get rosy. “My teacher asked me what I want to be when I grow up, and I want to be just like you. I want to work here too. Can I?”
Evan nods and hugs his mother tighter. “Me too!”
Valentina has been instilling a good work ethic in them, and it shows. She’s kind and patient, and she never puts too much pressure on the kids, but she ensures that they know the value of hard work, whether that’s chores or homework.
“You want to become a CEO, Bella?” I ask. “It’s not easy doing Mommy’s job, you know?”
Two years after Isabella was born, Valentina became CEO, and I became chairman of our company, freeing up more of my time to spend with our kids. It’s the best decision we’ve ever made. She excels at this job, and she loves it more than I ever did.
I gently brush Bella’s hair out of her face as she asks Valentina endless questions about her job, my heart overflowing with love. I never knew true happiness before Valentina, and the kids have made an already perfect life even better.
“I told you so,” I murmur.
Valentina looks up, confusion in her eyes.
I smile at her. “Ten years ago, I told you that I couldn’t put all of your fears to rest just yet, but ten years from then, we’d look back at that moment and I’d tell youI told you so.”
Her eyes light up, and she nods, her gaze filling with a love so powerful that it takes all of me to keep standing here and not steal her away from our kids.
“I told you so,” I whisper.
She chuckles. “I’ve never been happier that you were right,” she tells me. “I love you, Luca. So much.”
I brush the back of my hand over her cheek, my heart bursting with emotions that can’t be described as mere love, yet that’s the only word that comes close.
“I love you more,” I murmur. Every second of every day, I love her more.