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A prince? His baby sister was pregnant by a prince? Seb knew he’d been distracted lately, but how had he missed this much?

Noemi drew in a deep breath and then slowly expelled it ‘And he has asked me to marry him’

Well, that was so, otherwise Max and he would have had to have words

Then Maria said, ‘You’ll be a princess,’ and the reality of the situation set in fully His wife always saw to the heart of a matter first

‘Wow,’ Anissa said in ahich pretty hts on the subject

‘Yes, she will’ Max spoke up ‘She will be the most beautiful and compassionate princess And I couldn’t be luckier I promise you that I will do my best to make her happy’

Sebastian looked between Noe to Ostania?’ He wasn’t sure how he felt about her being so far away On the one hand, ue less On the other, without Maria, and with his parents gone, and no co around past Christmas, Seb would be on his own Completely alone, for the first time ever

His head spun at the thought

‘I’ and after Christmas I will need to spend the bulk of my time in Ostania,’ Max explained ‘I’m sorry to take your sister away from you all, but you will always be welcome at our home’

‘Don’t you mean your palace?’ Maria asked

Max nodded ‘Yes And it has a lot of guest rooms’

‘Guest rooularly,’ Noemi said firmly ‘Wait until you see this place It’s beautiful And they have great skiing But I wanted you all to know that ill be here for Christmas It’ll be a family Christmas just like Mamma and Papà would have wanted’

With all theht be the last time it ever happened

No He wouldn’t let that happen He couldn’t

He had to fix things And without his papà there to guide hiure it out on his own

‘Now you all know everything, we can concentrate on celebrating,’ Noeether ‘Max, I haven’t even properly introduced you to Sebastian’s wife This is Maria’

‘Mrs Cattaneo,’ Max said, with princely suaveness as he took her hand

‘Not Cattaneo,’ Maria said, too fast ‘I’iven up his naally she was still a Cattaneo But the fact that she’d chosen herEven worse was the way she’d said it so matter-of-factly, as if it were obvious

Sebastian shot her a look ‘Did we get divorced without ?’

He saw Maria’s tery here ‘Given everything else that happened in our , it wouldn’t surprise me,’ she said caustically

‘And now it definitely feels like a proper family Christo show Frankie the master suite I’ve had them set up the second bedroom there for the two of you’

The second bedroo primal rose up in Sebastian’s chest at the idea Maria was his wife, and he wanted her back where she belonged, in his bed In his arms

Was that so much to ask?

His objections must have shown on his face because Noemi arched her perfect eyebrows at him in amusement

‘What?’ Noe to just move back into your room, did you?’

Yes, of course he had, when he’d let himself think about it all Which hadn’t been often He hadn’t truly believed Maria would co there with Frankie

But he’d hoped And when he’d hoped, this hadn’t at all been the hoined

‘Frankie can stay here with —a joyous reunion with his son

He hadn’t thought it possible to miss such a little human as much as he had But now it seemed that Frankie barely even kneho he was