Chapter 12 - The Sun Over the Sea
The villa in Positano overlooked the shimmering blue Mediterranean.
It had been six months since we left Chicago. Six months since the snow, the blood, and the betrayals.
The air here smelled like lemons and sea salt.
I stood on the stone terrace, watching Lily run through the olive grove with a golden retriever puppy Luca had bought her for her tenth birthday. She was laughing. Loudly. Freely. The shadows under her eyes were completely gone.
She was just a child.
“She looks happy,” a deep voice said from behind me.
I turned. Luca was leaning against the stone archway, holding two cups of espresso. He wore a simple linen shirt, his face tanned and relaxed. The heavy burden of the Moretti empire had been entirely washed away by the Italian sun.
“She is happy,” I smiled, taking a cup from him. “She hasn’t asked about the phone once.”
“She doesn’t need it,” Luca said, looking out at the water. “She remembers Sarah’s voice without a machine now. She talks about her naturally. No pain. Just love.”
He looked at me, his dark eyes softening.
“And you?” he asked. “Are you happy here, Claire?”
I looked around the stunning villa, at the beautiful little girl playing in the grass, and at the man who had risked everything to protect his family.
I thought about my mother, safely living in her paid-off house back in Chicago, calling me every Sunday to hear about the Italian coast.
“I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” I said.
Luca smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.
He didn’t open it immediately. He just held it in his palm.
“Vanessa was an arrangement,” Luca said quietly. “A business deal dressed up as a romance. I never loved her. I never planned to love anyone after Sarah.”
My breath caught slightly.
“But watching you protect my daughter,” Luca continued, stepping closer. “Watching you refuse to back down, even when it cost you everything... it woke me up, Claire.”
He opened the box.
Inside wasn’t a massive, gaudy diamond.
It was a simple, elegant gold band with a single sapphire in the center.
“I don’t want a housekeeper,” Luca said, his voice thick with emotion. “I don’t want a manager for the staff. I want a partner. I want a mother for Lily.”
Tears pricked my eyes. I looked down at the ring, then up at the man who had torn down his own empire just to keep his daughter safe.
Before I could answer, Lily came running up the terrace steps, out of breath and beaming.
She saw the box in her father’s hand.
She didn’t look surprised. She just smiled, a bright, knowing smile, and grabbed my hand.
“Mommy told me once,” Lily said softly, looking up at me, “that angels don’t always have wings. Sometimes they just wear aprons.”
She wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Say yes, Claire,” she whispered.
I looked at Lily. Then I looked at Luca, who was waiting, his heart completely open.
I didn’t need a flip phone to tell me what to do next.
“Yes,” I said, as Luca slipped the ring onto my finger. “A thousand times, yes.”
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For the first time in my life, I wasn't just working in a house.
I was finally home.
