And yet I’m anxious.

What if something goes wrong? What if a last-minute threat pops up? What if Adrian rises from the dead again?

I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a moment. I only open them when the door clicks open. Geneva walks in, dressed in a champagne bridesmaid’s dress.

“You should be dressed by now,” she scolds.

I smile. “I know. I just needed a moment to appreciate the garden.”

“Guests are arriving,” she tells me as she takes a seat and checks her flawless makeup in the mirror. “I don’t recognize any of them.”

Her dress billows down to the floor. She looks lovely. Radiant, really. And happier than I’ve seen her in a long time.

“Do you mind it?” she continues. “That they’re not here?”

“Mom and Dad? No. It was my decision not to invite them, remember?”

She shrugs. “I know. I was just worried that you might regret it. I mean, they have no problem with you. It’s me they’re embarrassed about.”

I frown. “What they should be embarrassed about is how quickly Dad’s campaign crashed and burned without Adrian’s money backing him up.”

It was the death knell for his political ambitions, and—for the time being, at least—for our relationship. But I know better than anyone that dead things don’t always stay that way. Maybe one day, we’ll figure out a place to coexist.

That day isn’t today, though.

I’ve decided to be okay with that.

“I’m serious, June,” Geneva says. “I know you felt the need to come to my defense, but—”

“Of course I felt the need to come to your defense. You’re my sister, and we spent far too much time when we were younger fighting with each other instead of for each other. I’m done with that.”

Geneva smiles, and even though she doesn’t say so, I can see how much that means to her.

“Where’s Liliana, by the way?” Geneva asks, looking around as though she’s only just realized that my daughter is missing.

I chuckle. “Where else? She’s with her papa.”

“She’s a real daddy’s girl, isn’t she?”

“Tell me about it,” I grumble. “Only seven months old and she clings to him like he’s the one that spent nineteen hours in labor with her.”

Geneva giggles. “He is a pretty amazing father, to be fair.” It’s probably the nicest compliment she has ever given him.

Her relationship with Kolya has come a long way. They’ve transitioned from open hostility to lighthearted teasing. There are still jabs being traded on a daily basis, but the sharpness has been taken out of the words.

Love comes with thorns sometimes, I guess.

I’ve decided to be okay with that, too.

The door opens again and Sara enters. She’s wearing a gown like Genny’s, though in a different shade of champagne that makes her auburn hair glisten.

“Are you not dressed yet?” she exclaims, gaping at me.

Laughing, I pop off the window seat. “Sorry, sorry, don’t yell at me. I’m getting ready now.”