Chapter Fifty-nine

Two weeks later, Sylvia stared at herself blankly in the mirror.

An elegantly dressed bride in a long, white lace veil and satin sheath gown stared back at her. It still didn’t feel right. She picked up her neatly bundled bouquet of white roses and looked back in the mirror.

It was the morning of her wedding. In less than an hour she would have everything she’d barely dared to dream of—she’d be Mrs. Xavier Regulus. Robby would have his father.

So where was the joy? She should have been ecstatic with bliss and hope. So why, looking at herself in this beautiful dress, standing in a suite of this beautiful rented mansion outside her village, did she feel so…empty?

Xavier had wanted to marry her immediately, in Rio, but he’d quickly given in to Sylvia’s begging when she’d asked to have their wedding in New Hampshire, so her family could attend.

‘We can get married in New Hampshire, of course we can, if that’s your wish,’ he’d told her. ‘But after the ceremony, we must live in Rio. Do you