As the ceremony proceeded, Alexander found it increasingly difficult to concentrate. His eyes kept drifting toward Lila and the twins seated toward the back. Each time his gaze met Lila’s, she offered a serene smile that unnerved him more than if she had scowled. The children were a revelation, their presence gnawing at him like a mystery unsolved.

The officiant’s words blurred into background noise as questions raced through Alexander’s mind. Could those children be his? Was it possible that he had been oblivious to their existence for six whole years? He glanced at Cassandra, whose smile never wavered, but his own confidence felt like a façade crumbling under the weight of uncertainty.

As the ceremony concluded and guests mingled over champagne beneath the sprawling olive trees, Alexander felt the pull of inevitability. He had to speak with Lila. He had to know.

He found her near the villa’s grand fountain, the twins now engrossed in the koi swimming in the water. She looked up as he approached, a guarded expression in her eyes.

“Lila,” he started, struggling to maintain his usual air of composure. “I… I didn’t expect you to come.”

She shrugged, a picture of calm. “I thought it was time.”

He hesitated, unsure of how to broach the subject. The words came out falteringly. “The children… They’re—”

“Ours,” Lila confirmed, her voice steady. “Noah and Nora.”

Alexander’s world tilted. He looked at the children, really looked at them. In Noah’s eyes, he saw a mirror of his own, and in Nora’s smile, he glimpsed echoes of his mother’s warmth.

“Why didn’t you—?”

“Tell you?” Lila finished for him. “Would it have mattered, Alexander? You were already in another world, moving a million miles a minute. I didn’t want them to be a footnote in your life.”

He bristled at her words but knew somewhere deep down that she was right. He had been consumed by ambition, blind to everything else. Still, something inside him stirred—a dormant paternal instinct, perhaps. The urge to be part of their lives, however belatedly, was undeniable.

“Can I—” he stumbled over the words, uncharacteristically unsure. “Can I meet them?”

She considered him for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, they deserve to know their father.”

The twins approached, their curiosity palpable. Lila introduced them, and Alexander knelt to their level, his heart pounding with each innocent, inquisitive glance they cast his way.

“Hello, Noah. Nora,” he said, his voice softer than any business negotiation he’d ever conducted. “I’m… I’m your dad.”

Nora tilted her head, studying him. “Why weren’t you here before?”

Alexander felt the sting of her words but answered honestly. “I didn’t know. But I’d like to know you now, if you’d let me.”

Noah considered this, then nodded solemnly. “Okay.”

As they wandered away, hand in hand with Lila, Alexander watched them, feeling a shift within himself. A new chapter was unfolding, different from any he had foreseen. The wedding, meant to flaunt his success, had instead opened the door to something infinitely more valuable—family. And as he stood there, under the fading Californian sun, he felt a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, he could earn the role of ‘father’ in the years to come.