Page 99 of Lorenzo & Lily

“Let it out, baby. It’s all right. You’re safe here.” He shifted his eyes to his parents. They’d both defended Lily, and protected her and Liliana with their actions. “You’re safe with us. All of us.”

“Re-re-really?”

“Yes,” his mother said softly and touched a hand to her back. “You are. I’m very sorry about what’s happened, but we’re a family now.”

Lorenzo locked eyes with his father. “We need to move forward.”

“Together.” Gabriel placed one hand on Lily’s back and the other on his.

“Together,” Lorenzo repeated and kissed Lily’s head.

It took a few minutes for her to stop crying, a few more after that to settle enough to pull back. “Th-Thank you, all of you, for supporting me and Liliana.”

Gabriel took her hand and kissed it. “My dear, we may not have had the best start, but we do care for you, and not just as Liliana’s mother.”

“Absolutely,” Genevieve agreed. “I hope one day you can forgive me – that you all can – however, even if you don’t, know that we’re behind you, one hundred percent.”

Lily glanced at Lorenzo, then back at his mother. “I can’t speak for Lorenzo, but I forgive you. You stood up for me against my parents. Even though it took several years, as soon as you found out about Liliana, you did what you could to bring Lorenzo and I together. If you’re accepting me for Liliana’s sake–”

“We’re not,” Genevieve said, her voice firm and unwavering. “You’re a wonderful person. I didn’t see it all those years ago. I should have. The truth is, after thinking about it, I realized that you reminded me so much of myself.”

His mother? Like Lily? “Mama.”

“It’s true. My family is not the easiest, either. I won’t go into details, but I know some of what you’ve suffered. I suppose, in standing up to your parents, I was standing up to my own, in a sense.”

Lorenzo thought about his maternal grandmother, Helen. She was a bitch, and had treated Rebecca like shit right before the wedding. Helen did seem to share certain personality traits with Saskia.

He now had the uncomfortable realization of how his mother must have been raised, by a scheming bitch of a mother more concerned with social status than her own child. Though his mother had behaved terribly in keeping him and Lily apart, she had always been a loving mother to all of them. Even being queen never kept her from being present in her children’s lives, even though she likely never received much love from her own mother growing up. She could not have had an easy life.

He suddenly pitied his mother, though she wouldn’t want his pity. “I forgive you, too.”

His mother gasped. “Lorenzo.”

“I only hope all of you can forgive my outburst earlier.” He turned to Lily. “I’m sorry I punched your father.”

She gave him a small smile. “I’m not. Is that wrong?”

His father wrapped an arm around his mother’s shoulders. “Not in the least. I wanted to do it myself.”

Lorenzo’s heart started beating faster as his words came out in a rush. “Just because I punched him doesn’t mean I’m regressing, or that I have rage issues, or that–”

“Of course you don’t, my son.” Gabriel leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I know you don’t.”

His mother kissed his cheek. “We know, Lorenzo.”

An overwhelming sense of relief filled him. It seemed his family – all his family – was finally ready to stop babying him and start trusting him again.

Thank God.

“I’m going to give Corrado a call, and have him send the documents over that need to be signed.”

As his father pulled out his phone, his mother pulled out hers. “I’ll get the others working on the press statements in the meantime.”

Knowing his parents had the situation well in hand, Lorenzo pulled Lily into his arms. “I am sorry about something else.”

Lily tilted her head to the side, her lips tipped down. She looked so much like Liliana in that moment, he almost smiled. “What?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how much you meant to me all those years ago. If you’d believed how much I loved you, how much I needed you, maybe you would have come directly to me when you realized you were pregnant. You’d have known that I would have chosen you, if a choice was to be made. I would have chosen you and our daughter.”

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