Lilly & Leclerc ~ [CL 16]

Epilogue

16th July 2030

"Please tell me you didn't go overboard." Charles almost snorts at my plead - I should've known it was one made in vain. When my things were loaded into the car by Charles, with Liam and Cara waving the two of us off enthusiastically from our Monaco apartment I knew whatever plan Charles had made was going to be overboard. When has he ever done things by halves?

"It's like you don't know me Fleur." Charles hums with a smirk as we pull onto a quiet country road, or as country-like as we get this close to monaco. We've been driving for a little over an hour, Charles' hands drifting from the wheel every so often to tie with my hand or grip onto my thigh protectively. I feel at peace every time he does it.

"I haven't heard that for a while." The sentence leaves me with a laugh that Charles echoes. "Fleur," I mumble the word in explanation watching as Charles' face lights up in entertainment.

The decision that the two of us would move to Monaco was made a little over eighteen months ago. It wasn't long after I became pregnant that Charles proposed the idea to me. On a Sunday morning at our favourite brunch spot around the corner from our apartment over iced coffee and poached eggs he suggested the idea. Charles was nervous and jittery in a way I hadn't seen since we first met as he pulled out his usual race notebook, opening to a busy page at the back. Instead of race notes he'd made a list of all the reasons we should make the move.

Top of the list was that Charles wanted his child(ren), his daughter, to be Monegasque. He's so proud of his nationality and he wanted that for his children too, it was important to him. We had spoke about that long before seeing the positive pregnancy test and this was no way a surprise.

Next, was the recognition that whilst the life we had together in London was perfect in every way, it wasn't what he had pictured when our family grew - and truthfully it wasn't for me either. Charles wanted the Monaco lifestyle, he wanted to go out on a boat the days the weather allowed and teach his daughter to swim in the same swimming pool he had. He wanted his children to be surrounded by people speaking the languages he spoke and the privacy Monaco had often afforded him. Charles listed reason after reason; his mother and whole family being in Monaco to help us, many of our friends also residing there, the weather, the family-friendly lifestyle. Truthfully, he didn't need to convince me at all. I was on board the moment the suggestion left his lips - but watching him squirm, even if only for a moment, was fun.

Six weeks after the proposition we moved into our new apartment in Fontvielle, right across from the restaurant of our first date - our favourite. The floor-wide apartment is large enough for us, any future additions to our family plus all family or friends (meaning Maddie, Cara or Luke) to stay at any time. The Monaco water stretches out in front of our home, most days it shimmers under the golden rays of sun as I sip at my morning coffee bleary eyed and tired.

I love everything about it.

I love that, even with all of the money in the world, Charles and I spent weeks picking out paint colours and decorating the walls different colours. I love the pictures we chose together to hang on the walls and the plants that we placed outside to provide shade and further privacy. I love the piano that Charles spends quiet moments at and the corners of cluttered chaos we tuck trinkets and toys into. Most of all, I love that all of it is for our daughter.

'What about Calla?' Charles had whispered in suggestion before grazing his lips against her newborn head. We were both delirious from exhaustion, the beauty of our newborn daughter making it impossible to look anywhere but her scrunched up pink face, much less sleep. Her dark hair, soft flushed chubby cheeks and pink plump lips had us entranced, she was (and remains) the most stunning girl in the whole world. The two of us were too terrified to look away, that we'd miss something important or beautiful if we did anything more than blink.