Page 96 of Forever After All

She smiles at him and grabs his hand over the table. “I love you too, sweetheart.”

Alec gently brushes my hair behind my ear and Lucian grins at me. “Elena,” Luce says. “I’m so happy right now… I think now would be the perfect time to make Mom just as happy. Both our moms, actually.”

Alec kisses my shoulder and nods, a pleased smile on his face. I grin nervously as I reach into my bag, taking out two identical envelopes. I’ve been carrying them everywhere with me, waiting for the perfect time. So far, we’ve only told Lucian, and only because he was ready to call an ambulance last week when I spent an entire morning throwing up.

“Today does seem to be a day of new beginnings,” I say, smiling at Alec. I push both envelopes toward our mothers, and they both pick them up at the same time. They open their presents, and Mom starts to cry, while Sofia tries her best to blink back her tears.

“Is this real?” Sofia asks, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

Alec nods and wraps his arm around me protectively. “Yes,” he says, smiling at the sonograms in their hands. “You’re both going to be grandmothers.”

Alec presses a kiss to my temple, and I look around the table filled with my loved ones. A few short years ago, I was desperate and all alone. I was on the verge of losing my mother.

And now she sits in front of me, smiling at a sonogram of her grandchild. I’ve got my husband’s arm wrapped around me, his eyes filled with love.

“I love you,” he says, and I smile.

“I love you too, Alec.”

He’s not just made my every dream come true. Every single day, he makes it so that I don’t even want to fall asleep, because my dreams are no longer as good as my life with him is.

Alec smiles and brushes my hair behind my ear. “Tell me you’ll always love me.”

I nod, grinning. “Always.”

Alec leans in and presses a kiss to my forehead, and I can’t help but tease him. “Though… I thought you didn’t believe in forever?”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “I do, if it’s with you. You’ve got me believing in forever, after all.”

Forever with Alec isn’t nearly enough, but it’ll have to do.