The thirty-fifth week, they started over.
Not from the beginning.
From the place where they almost lost everything.
And slowly, carefully, they began to build something new.
---
The penthouse was quiet.
Lena was asleep. The nanny was watching her.
Damien and Christabel sat in the garden.
The sun was setting over the city.
"I've been thinking," Christabel said.
"About what?"
"About what comes next."
"And?"
"And I don't want to just survive anymore. I want to build."
"We've built things before."
"Not like this." She turned to face him. "I want to build something that can't be destroyed. Something that will outlast us. Something that will keep Lena safe no matter what."
"The empire?"
"The empire was yours. I want something that's ours."
---
He was quiet for a moment.
The city hummed below them.
"What did you have in mind?"
"Verona was just the beginning. I want more cities. More buildings. More places that belong to us."
"That's going to take money."
"We have money."
"That's going to take power."
"We have power."
"That's going to take enemies."
She smiled.
The dangerous one.
"Let them come."
---
That night, Christabel put Lena to bed.
Not Damien. Her.
She read her daughter a story. Not a baby book. A real story. One of her favorites.
"There was a woman who was afraid of nothing," she read. "Until she had a daughter. Then she was afraid of everything. So she built a world where her daughter would never have to be afraid."
Lena stared at her.
"Bah," she said.
"That's right," Christabel said. "Bah."
---
Damien was in the doorway.
"She said it again."
"She said it to me."
"She said it to both of us."
She closed the book.
Set it on the nightstand.
"She's going to be powerful."
"She's going to be just like you."
"God help the world."
"God help anyone who tries to take what's hers."
---
They stood over the crib together.
Lena was asleep. Her tiny chest rose and fell.
"Tomorrow," Christabel said, "we start building."
"Building what?"
"An empire. Together."