“Here it is.” The velvet box looks a bit worn and it’s not wrapped. He takes a breath and kneels in front of me. “I’ve been carrying this around for seven years.”
He opens the box, revealing a stunning vintage ring with a cushion-cut diamond surrounded by smaller sapphires set in platinum.
I don’t want to presume what this is, but my heart hammers in my chest full of hope. "It's beautiful."
“I picked it up the day I was supposed to meet your father. It’s why I was late to meet him.” Luca's eyes cloud with memory. "I was going to ask Umberto for his permission that day."
The air leaves my lungs in a rush. “Luca.”
“I was nervous. I wanted to look perfect when I asked for his blessing." A bitter laugh escapes him. "My vanity saved my life."
The guilt I’d been carrying about how I treated Luca has waned in the last week, but at moments like this, it wells painfully in my chest.
All these years, I'd blamed him for betraying my father, when in reality, he'd been planning to propose.
"If I had been on time…" Luca's voice breaks. "I would have been arrested with him. Maybe died in that prison too."
I jerk my gaze to his as his words bring home the reality of what could have happened had he been on time.
"I kept the ring as a reminder of what I'd lost," he continues. "Of what Aldo took from us."
I reach for his hand, squeezing it tightly.
"So much has gotten in the way of our happiness," Luca continues, turning the ring box in his hands. "Seven years apart. Your father. My exile. The secrets between us.”
I watch his face in the soft Christmas lights, seeing the vulnerability he rarely shows to anyone. Only to me.
"Since Rocco came home," he admits, "I've been afraid. Afraid that something else will happen. That someone will take this away from us again."
He gives me a sheepish smile, as if he thinks his fears are silly. "Every night, I check the security system three times. I've doubled the guards. I wake up in cold sweats thinking I hear one of the kids crying."
My heart clenches. I've noticed the shadows under his eyes, the way he tenses at unexpected sounds.
I thought it was just the burden of his new position as Don. It turns out it’s more than that.
“My father would have given his blessing,” I say. "After thoroughly intimidating you first."
That pulls a reluctant laugh from him. "Yeah, he would have. But I would have withstood it. For you."
I lean closer to him. "I spent years being afraid too. Afraid of Aldo, afraid for our children, afraid of what would happen if the truth came out." I cup his face in my hands. "I'm tired of fear stealing our time."
He tilts his head, kissing my palm. “Me too. That’s why I spoke to Dominic yesterday. I asked for his blessing, as head of your family."
"You asked Dom?" Truthfully, I don’t need anyone’s permission to marry, as far as I’m concerned. I suspect if Dom said no, Luca would still want to marry me. But there is tradition that our families like to respect.
"He seemed shocked at first." Luca's lips quirk into a half-smile. "Not that I wanted to marry you. To that, he said that it was about damn time. He was shocked that I showed him the respect as head of the Vitale family."
“It was good of you to do that.”
He shrugs. “He did what I couldn’t, protected you and the kids. I’m grateful for that.”
For a moment, we sit in silence, staring at each other like lovestruck teenagers.
"So," I tease, gesturing to the ring box still in his hand, "are you proposing, or just showing me your jewelry collection?"
He chuckles. "Let me finish, woman." He takes my hand. "Elena Vitale, mother of my children, keeper of my heart for seven long years, will you marry me? Will you be my wife through whatever comes?"
"Yes!" The word spills from my lips before he even finishes speaking. "Yes, Luca."
