Please Me Daddy (Gracie) novel Chapter 236

Epilogue

Apollo

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Laughter echoed through the hallway.

“Daddy! Daddy! You’re back!”

A small figure came running toward me at full speed.

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I looked down just in time to see my daughter, her black hair bouncing wildly and her gray eyes shining with excitement, as she threw herself straight into my legs.

I could not stop the smile that appeared on my face as I bent down and lifted her into my arms. I was about to say something when another voice came from behind her. 4

“Hannah! How many times have I told you not to run like that? You’re six years old now. If you fall and hurt yourself, what then?”

I looked up.

Grace was walking toward us, one hand supporting her very round stomach, the other pressed lightly against her lower back as she tried to catch her breath. Even heavily pregnant, she still moved with that elegance that had always drawn my eyes to her.

When she reached us, she blinked and raised an eyebrow. “Apollo, you’re back earlier than I expected.”

I adjusted Hannah in my arms and stepped closer to Grace, brushing a loose strand of hair away from her face before saying quietly, “You need to be careful. You shouldn’t be running around when you’re pregnant.”

She sighed dramatically. “I wasn’t running. Hannah was. We were planning to cook dinner for you, and she keeps turning everything into a game.”

She gently cupped Hannah’s cheeks. “She’s so naughty.”

Hannah pouted immediately. “Mummy, I just wanted to play with you.”

I looked at both of them, my daughter clinging to my neck and my wife standing in front of me with our children growing safely inside her, and for a moment, everything else faded away. The power, the business, the past, the regrets. None of it mattered inside these walls.

Six years ago, I thought my life had ended.

Standing here now, with my family in my arms and laughter filling the house, I knew I had been wrong.

“Hannah,” Grace said gently as she adjusted her hand over her swollen stomach, “I’m carrying three of your siblings in here, so I really shouldn’t be playing too much. You have to be careful with Mommy, okay?”

Hannah’s gray eyes widened slightly as she looked at her mother’s stomach, as if she could already picture the three tiny lives inside. She nodded seriously and said, “I’m sorry, Mom.”

Grace’s expression softened immediately. “It’s okay,” she replied, brushing Hannah’s hair back lovingly. “Now give Daddy a kiss and go pack your toys before dinner.”

Hannah turned to me obediently, leaned forward, and pressed a loud kiss against my cheek. I ruffled her hair in return, and she giggled before running down the hallway toward her room, her small footsteps echoing against the wooden floor.

Grace let out a quiet sigh as she watched her go, her hand still resting protectively over her stomach.

I stepped closer and wrapped my arms around her from behind, pulling her gently against my chest. I moved her hair aside and pressed a slow kiss to the side of her neck, breathing in the familiar scent that had long ago become my definition of home.

“You’re worried,” I said quietly against her skin.

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She turned her head slightly to look at me, her eyes softer than usual. “Yes,” she admitted without hesitation. “I almost lost her six years ago. I don’t want to lose these ones too.”

Her hand tightened slightly over her stomach as she spoke.

My gaze dropped to the curve of her belly.

Six years ago.

That day was still carved into my memory. The day Grace was kidnapped was the worst day of my life. I had thought I understood fear before, but I had not, not until I saw her lying there, unmoving, covered in blood.

She had been rushed to the hospital, and I had followed, my hands stained red, my mind completely blank except for one desperate command.

I wanted her to survive.

When the doctor walked out and told me she had died, I felt something inside me break beyond repair. For a few seconds, I truly believed I had lost everything. I could not hear anything except the sound of my own heartbeat crashing violently in my ears. I could not think or breathe. But then, unexpectedly, there was a pulse.

The doctors called it a miracle. They said it was medically unexplainable. Not only had Grace survived, but the child inside her had survived too, even though the bullet had hit her.

Both of them lived. 3

When our daughter was born months later, Grace named her Hannah. 1

And now, six years later, Grace was pregnant again, this time with triplets.

I understood her fear. I understood why, even as the chairwoman of the Jones Corporation, she chose to work mostly from home now. I understood why she watched Hannah so closely and why her hand instinctively rested over her stomach every few minutes.

She had once stood at the edge of death. She did not want to look over that edge again.

I tightened my hold around her and buried my face slightly into her hair as I muttered, “I will never let anything happen to you, Grace.”

It was not a dramatic promise. It was a vow.

She turned in my arms and looked up at me, smiling gently. “I know,” she said. “That’s why I married you. You’re like an overprotective husband.”

I raised an eyebrow faintly at that.

She smiled and asked. “Did you go to Austin’s grave again?”

I nodded. She leaned forward and kissed me softly. “You go there every year.”

“He was like a father to me,” I replied calmly.

She studied my face for a moment before smiling in a way that made her eyes shine. “You’ve grown so soft, Mr. Apollo.”

I tilted my head slightly as I looked down at her and asked in a calm voice, “Is that a bad thing?”

Grace bit her lower lip seductively and muttered, “It makes you look hotter. So hot it makes me want to take a bite out of you.”

I watched the way her face turned red almost instantly after saying that, as if the words had escaped before she could stop them, and she quickly waved her hand in front of her face as though she could erase the moment. “Forget I said anything,” she added

hurriedly. “It sounded better in my head.”

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A low chuckle slipped from my throat before I could stop it, darker than I intended, and I stepped closer without breaking eye contact. Before she could retreat, I slid one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back, lifting her effortlessly into my

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