Chapter 12 - The Ring That Belonged To Nobody
Luca pulled a small velvet box from his pocket.
He didn’t kneel. He just stood there on the stairs, holding my gaze with an intensity that took my breath away.
“I bought this three weeks ago,” Luca said softly. “I was waiting for the right moment. But I realize now, there is no perfect moment. There is only right now.”
He opened the box.
Inside was a ring.
It wasn’t a massive, gaudy diamond like Vanessa’s. It was a simple, elegant band of platinum, set with a single, flawless sapphire surrounded by small diamonds.
“It doesn’t belong to my mother,” Luca said, anticipating my thought. “It’s not a Moretti family heirloom. It has no history, no curses, no blood attached to it.”
He took the ring out of the box.
“I bought it for you, Emma. Because I want to start completely new. Just us.”
A tear finally spilled over my eyelashes.
“What about Clara?” I whispered.
“Clara will always be Leo’s mother,” Luca said gently. “I’ve already offered to buy her a house in the neighborhood. She will be a massive part of his life, and I will always support her. But she and I both know we can’t go backward. We’re different people now.”
He took my left hand. His thumbs brushed over my knuckles.
“You are my future, Emma. You, me, Leo, Thomas, and Tommy. This house. The dog we haven’t bought yet.”
He smiled, a genuine, unguarded smile that made him look like a normal man deeply in love.
“Marry me, Emma.”
I looked at the ring. A blank slate. A new beginning.
I looked at the man who had torn down a criminal empire to build a safe home for his son.
“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes.”
Luca slid the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly.
He pulled me in, lifting me slightly off the stairs, and kissed me with a fierce, possessive tenderness.
When we finally broke apart, we heard a small clapping sound.
We turned.
Leo was standing in the hallway, grinning from ear to ear. Clara stood behind him, wiping her eyes, but she was smiling too. A sad, but peaceful smile.
“Does this mean I get two moms?” Leo asked.
Luca laughed, a rich, joyful sound that echoed through the bright hallway. “Yes, buddy. You get two moms.”
Leo cheered and ran toward the kitchen. “Pops! I’m getting two moms and a dog!”
My father’s laughter drifted in from the patio.
Clara walked over to us. She looked at the ring on my finger, then met my eyes.
“Thank you,” Clara said softly. “For taking care of my boy when I couldn’t.”
“He’s easy to love,” I replied, returning her warm smile.
Two years later.
The summer sun beat down on the backyard of our suburban home.
The grill was smoking, filled with burgers and hot dogs. Tommy was flipping the meat, arguing good-naturedly with my father about baseball stats.
A golden retriever puppy—the blue dog from the drawing, just a different color—was chasing a tennis ball across the grass.
Clara sat at the patio table, sipping iced tea and laughing at something Luca had said. She had moved in down the street, and she and Leo had built a beautiful, unbreakable bond. She was a teacher again, engaged to a local architect.
I stood at the kitchen window, watching them.
I rested my hand on my stomach, feeling the small, fluttery kick of the baby girl due in two months.
Luca walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his hands gently over mine on my pregnant belly.
“He’s getting big,” Luca murmured, watching Leo, who was now eight, tackle the puppy in the grass.
“They both are,” I smiled, leaning my head back against his chest.
Luca turned me around. He looked down at me, his eyes full of a peace I never thought a man like him could possess.
He lifted my left hand, kissing the sapphire ring that still sparkled in the sunlight.
“I love you, Mrs. Moretti,” he said.
“I love you too,” I replied.
I looked back out the window at my family. The mechanic, the mafia boss, the presumed-dead mother, the brother, the son, and me—the housekeeper who noticed a cufflink.
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It was a messy, complicated, beautiful family.
And for the first time in my life, everything was exactly where it belonged.
