Mia had become even rounder since the last time I saw her at the wedding. Her husband Emiliano was Cassio’s age and only briefly shook my hand before he joined Cassio for an apéritif. Mia’s two daughters were five and two and absolutely adorable with their pigtails and cute dresses. “How’s the baby?”

Mia touched her belly. “He’s good.”

“He?”

Mia smiled, but Emiliano spoke before she could. “It’s a boy.” His relief and enthusiasm were unmistakable. Men in our circles still needed an heir. I took the takeout from Mia and carried it over to the table, a bit peeved that Emiliano had allowed Mia to hold it even if it wasn’t that heavy.

“She’s getting quick,” Mia said with a nod toward Simona, who had perfected speed-crawling.

“She’s already trying to walk.”

Mia touched my shoulder, lowering her voice. “You look good. So I take it everything is going well between Cassio and you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad. He and the kids deserve a break.”

It had been a while since I’d had a family dinner at the beach house. I could tell how immensely pleased Mia was over this new development. She’d been trying to convince me to do one for months.

Emiliano joined me for a quick Negroni before dinner. I caught him looking at Giulia in a way that set my teeth on edge. He wouldn’t make a move. His self-preservation was strong. He checked out every attractive woman, and unfortunately, he didn’t stop there. He cheated on Mia in every pregnancy so far. The first time I’d found out, I threatened him, told him I’d cut his dick into tiny pieces if he didn’t stop, but Mia had asked me to stay out of her marriage. She loved him and preferred to pretend he wasn’t cheating. I honored her wish, and Emiliano worked harder to keep his adultery a secret. Mia had a six sense for infidelity had immediately known when I found out about Gaia’s affair, but I’d never told her with whom. Giulia was the only person I’d told every detail. I wasn’t even sure why. My father and Faro were the obvious choices for such a confession, but with Giulia, I felt a stronger connection despite our age difference. We were complete opposites, from our outlook on life to our experiences to our level of goodness and respective badness, but we complemented each other.

Mia gave me a proud look from her spot at the table as if she could read my mind. She’d been against Gaia from the start and in favor of Giulia from the first moment she spotted her. She was right about my first wife, and I hoped she would be with Giulia as well.

The next morning, I woke shortly after sunset, wanting to wake Daniele like I’d done for his last two birthdays, but his bed was empty. I found him on the floor in front of the windows, throwing the dog’s ball so she could chase it. His tosses weren’t very far or well-aimed, but the look of determined concentration followed by delight on his face tightened my chest. “Happy birthday.”

Daniele jumped, dropping the ball. It rolled toward me then bumped against my bare foot. Loulou didn’t dare take it. I picked it up then rolled it over the ground toward Daniele. He took it and tossed it again. Loulou returned it to him eagerly. Daniele took the ball and looked down at it. “We’ll open your presents once Giulia and Simona are awake.”

He held up the ball. It took me a moment to realize why. I approached him slowly, worried he’d change his mind, then grabbed the ball and tossed it through the room for Loulou. She dashed after it as if she was possessed then returned with it. This time she dropped it in front of me. I sank down beside Daniele and held the ball out to him. “Your turn.”

He met my gaze for the first time in many months. His eyes were questioning, and if he’d just ask, I’d tell him whatever he needed to hear. He curled his small fingers around the ball then threw it. We spent a long time like this until Loulou was panting and eventually carried her ball over into her basket, done with chasing.

That was when I noticed Giulia half hidden in the doorframe, her eyes so soft my own heart skipped a beat. She cradled Simona against her chest, who still looked sleepy.

“Happy birthday, birthday boy,” she said as she walked in. “How about cake?”

Giulia lit three candles on top of a cake, which was sprinkled with what I learned was funfetti. Daniele’s eyes became wide as he took in the cake. I lifted him on one of the chairs so he could get a good look at it. “You have to blow out the candles and make a wish.”

Simona tried to lean away from Giulia to touch the candles, and her face scrunched up in frustration when she couldn’t. “Do you need help?” Giulia asked Daniele as he blew out only one candle with his first attempt.

“You’re three, a big boy. You can do it,” I told him.

He gave a small nod and blew even harder. Both candles snuffed out this time.

“Good.”

Giulia beamed as she cut the first piece of the cake. When she pulled it out, its colorful layers became visible.

“Wow,” Daniele breathed. I froze, unable to believe what I’d heard. One simple word, the first word Daniele had spoken in my presence in months.

Wow, indeed.

I had to agree with him, not just because of the rainbow funfetti cake. Giulia set down a plate in front of me and sank down on a chair with Simona on her lap, who used the moment to shove her fingers into Giulia’s cake slice.

Giulia’s laugh rang out like a bell as she snatched up Simona’s tiny hand and put it in her mouth to lick away the buttercream before wiping the remains off with a napkin. I couldn’t stop staring at her.

She noticed, her expression morphing from embarrassment to confusion. She felt her face as if she expected there to be more cake then brushed out her bangs in the nervous gesture she often expressed. I couldn’t believe I’d focused on what I perceived as wrong with Giulia—like her bangs, her quirky dresses, her age—when I first met her instead of realizing what was good. And there were so many things that even the small annoyances faded into the background. Giulia was perfect for my kids and me. Maybe because of her age because she was still youthfully optimistic, naively reckless, and daringly unconventional.

She wasn’t what I’d wanted in a wife, but hell, if she wasn’t exactly what I needed.

“Is Dad a bad man?”

I almost fell off the ladder, my breath lodging in my throat. Daniele had said one or two words at the most in the two weeks since his birthday, and now he chose the morning before Christmas Eve for a loaded question like that. I waited for my initial shock to fade before I hung up another ornament on our Christmas tree. Then I slowly climbed down.

Daniele sat among the boxes with Christmas decorations, which I’d bought because I worried Gaia’s old things would bring back too many hurtful memories, while Simona ripped apart the silver tinsel that she discovered in one of them.

I sat down beside Daniele, searching his face. He was spinning a red ornament on the floor, watching it with a little frown. Loulou had dashed off the moment Elia had carried the tree into the living room this morning and refused to go anywhere near it. “Who’d tell you something like that?” It couldn’t be something he had decided for himself. He was too young.