He doesn’t read the sentence aloud at first. He reads it to himself, absorbing the shock. When he finally speaks, it’s a strangled whisper, nearly lost to the breeze.
“We’re creating a new life together, Alexander... There’s a little someone growing inside me as I write this for you, made from our love.”
He lifts his head. The journal nearly slips from his fingers. He looks at me as if he’s seeing me for the first time.
“Cecilia...”
He forces his gaze back to the page to finish, blinking against the blur of tears.
“I can’t wait to see you become the incredible father I already know you’ll be. I can’t wait to write this new chapter of our lives with you by my side. Ti amo, now and forever.
Per sempre tua, Cecilia.”[LXXXIII]
He closes the journal slowly, then carefully slips it back into my bag.
With trembling hands, I undo the bow of my blue wrap dress, pushing the fabric aside before taking his hand and placing it directly over my still-flat belly.
“Say it,” he asks, his voice pleading, his eyes locked on mine. “Say it for me. I need to hear you.”
“I’m pregnant, Alexander. You’re going to be a father.”
With his hand pressed to my stomach, he captures my mouth in an urgent kiss. It doesn’t take long before I taste the salt of our mixed tears.
Alexander breaks the kiss and drops to his knees in the sand. He presses his forehead to my belly, his large hands wrapping around my waist with utter devotion.
He stays there for a moment, breathing heavily, murmuring words in Italian against my skin—too fast for me to catch. I slip my fingers gently through his hair, the light catching on thering he placed there, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever worn. My tears fall freely, but the smile never leaves my face.
Then Alexander lifts his head and raises his voice, switching to English so I can hear him clearly.
“You, your mom, and Ethan and Alicia—your two siblings—are my world. And I will always love you, cherish you, care for you, and protect you. Always. Always.”
He presses reverent kisses across my belly, one after another. I close my eyes as the sea breeze brushes my face, and I silently thank whoever, or whatever, guided our lives together to this place, to this exact moment, two years ago.
I sigh, and Alexander glances at me.
“Why the long sigh with that beautiful smile on your face?”
“I was just thinking about when I told you I was expecting Stella and Alessio.”
His smile softens. He leans in to steal a quick kiss, then lowers his mouth to my belly. “One of the best days of my life.”
Then his expression turns mischievous. “If you were thinking about the day we found out they were twins,” he adds, “your face would look very different.”
I laugh.
It would be the understatement of the century to say I was shocked at that first ultrasound. I nearly passed out right there on the table, while Alexander couldn’t stop smiling—touching my belly, beaming—after he’d calmly cleaned the gel off himself.
Naturally, I blamed his side of the family for that particular twist of fate.
But, I was so happy. Overwhelmed with love. Just... terrified at the thought of caring for two newborns at the same time.
We’d started talking about children even before he proposed. I was the one who brought it up. Alexander wasn’t a father yet, and I needed to know how he felt about it. When I told him I wanted more kids, that I’d always dreamed of a big family, his smile told me everything. If it were up to him, we would’ve started trying right then and there.
He started preparing to step down from his position even before our wedding. By the time the twins were born, he was already acting more as a consultant, a role he keeps today, dedicating only a few hours of his week to the family business.
His family flew to New York in force for the twins’ birth, and some of them—Nonna, Anna, and her children—stayed on for the first few months to help us find our footing. I don’t think I’ll ever fully manage to thank them for all their generosity.
For the last three years, we divided our lives between Pisa and New York. But now we’re in Pisa for good. Age has begun to weigh on Nonna, and we wanted to be close to her.
