Chapter One

I, I have known love before, I thought it would no more, take on a new direction. Still, strange as it seems to be, it's truly new to me, that affection.

The week had finally come.

The week leading up to the wedding of Sophie Neveu and Robert Langdon.

It seemed like only yesterday that Robert had been proposing to Sophie in Paris and now they were only a week away from tying the knot.

They had decided on a simple affair. They would say their vows in Boston City Hall and then fly across to Scotland to have the marriage blessed in Roselyn Chapel. This saved Sophie the trouble of having to constantly have her wedding dress altered and changed as she would be four months pregnant by the time they got married.

They had chosen to get married in October as the fall symbolized change, and both Robert and Sophie knew that this would be a big change for both of them. Not only would they both be married for the first time, but they were also going to be parents. Sophie for the first time, Robert for the second. Although, when he thought about it, he would technically be a first-time parent as he hadn't been around much during Faith's early years. Only when she had gotten older, had Robert started taking her to Florence every summer. He could remember the first time as though it were yesterday…

"Faith, slow down!" Robert called through the ancient streets of Old Florence as a young girl ran ahead of him laughing, her dark hair flowing behind her. But his daughter couldn't hear him, there was so much to explore, so much to do. This was so much better than sitting in a lab in the middle of Switzerland. She had not a care in the world and wasn't even worried about leaving her father behind. She carried on running until she hit something lumpy. She looked up. She had run straight into someone, and that someone looked mad.

"Little girl look where you are going!" the man had shouted at her in Italian.

"Excuse me," Faith had smiled, breathless, "I lost myself, I got too excited!"

He had rolled his eyes, "Where are you parents?" he demanded.

Faith turned to look behind her. She scanned the crowd, knowing that Robert had been right behind her moments ago. Panic set into her chest as she frantically searched for her dad.

"Faith!" her ears pricked at the sound of her name being called, "Faith, where are you?"

"Papa?" she called back, "Papa!"

Robert burst through the crowd and he saw the little girl in the middle of the crowd. He made it to her in two strides and scooped her into his arms. "Faith, don't run off like that! You scared me!"

"Sorry papa, I was excited. I wanted to explore. I've never been to Florence before!"

Robert couldn't help but chuckle, "Well, there's plenty of time for that!" he replied.

Back in the present day, Robert hoped that he wouldn't have another episode like that, but if this child was as curious as Faith had been, and no doubts it probably would be, then he was in for more episodes like that.

Sophie was taking everything in her stride. Admittedly, things were easier for her now that her first trimester was coming to an end. She wasn't feeling as ill as often and as such, she was able to get out and do things. She couldn't get too stressed, it wasn't good for the baby, so she was taking steps to make the organization side of things less stressful. In all honesty, the Boston side of things was fairly straight forward. It was only going to be a simple affair, just Sophie, Robert and Faith plus a handful of Robert's friends, including Peter Solomon and his sister Katherine. Sophie had invited her brother but he was too busy but promised to be there in Scotland.

One evening, a few nights before the wedding, when Faith was round at one of her friends, Sophie was sat snuggled into Robert's side. They had been sat watching a late night chat show but neither of them were listening to it. Sophie's head was buzzing with last minute wedding things and Robert's was full of queries and problems. Some were related to work, like whether he was being fair enough to the freshmen classes he had and worried whether he could help his final years graduate successfully. But he was also worried about the wedding and whether he was doing it right by Sophie. He felt like she should be having a big white fairy-tale wedding not some quick hop to the city office. Maybe they should wait until the baby was here? But then, would that be more chaotic?

"I can hear the cogs turning from here!" smiled Sophie, looking up at him, "What's wrong?"

Robert smiled at her, "I was thinking…"

"That's dangerous!" she laughed.

He looked at her seriously for a moment and she sat up, her full attention on him. "Sophie," he paused and he smiled realizing that he might be worrying her, "is this really the wedding you want?"

She looked at him, head tilted to one side, "What do you mean?"

"Well, didn't you want the big white wedding, with your whole family there, watching you say 'I do'?"

Sophie thought for a moment and then said, softly, "Robert, the only person I want at my wedding is you, otherwise there is no point to the whole thing. The fact that I will have Faith there and Peter and Katherine and all of your friends just makes it even more special. I don't want a whole fancy thing. I find that distracts from the reason for being there. The celebration of two people promising their lives to each other. And there is no one I would rather promise my life to than you!"

Robert smiled, tears in his eyes, "You don't want to wait until after the baby then?"

She smiled, "That would be more trouble than it's worth. Plus what if we say that and then when we are ready, there's another baby on the way?"

"Who says there will be another baby?" he asked playfully.

Sophie swatted his shoulder, "I was being… what's the word?"

"Optimistic?"

She smiled, "It may happen. It may not happen. We are the masters of our own lives!"

"Truer words have never been spoken!" and he kissed her softly.