The news didn't settle all at once. It unfolded slowly, like dawn stretching across a horizon they hadn't realized they were standing on.
Alessandro didn't let go of her for a long time.
Not in that immediate, breathless moment. Not when the first rush of disbelief softened into something steadier. Not even when the night air turned cooler and the wine sat forgotten on the small table beside them.
"We're going to be parents," he said again, quieter this time, as if testing how the words felt in his mouth.
Sienna smiled against his shoulder. "We are."
There was a shift in him she could feel more than see. A grounding. Alessandro had always been intense—driven, focused, occasionally haunted by the man he used to be—but this… this was different. This was something deeper. Something rooted.
"I want to do this right," he said.
"You will."
