After that brief storm of emotions, Victoria put the children to bed and stayed alone with Christian.

"Thank you for being here for us," she said, taking his hand while he gently stroked it.

"I have no problem taking care of you as long as I can. In fact, I’ll stay here to sleep tonight; we don’t know what might happen."

"No, Christian, that’s not necessary. You need to rest to attend to your work. Don’t worry about us."

"I’ll sleep on the sofa; it’s quite comfortable. I’m only two houses away, darling. How about we have a drink?"

Victoria bit her lip, still nervous from what had happened, and...