Epilogue
It was a rainy autumn day. I was lying on the ground, enjoying the feeling of the cool floor against my skin with a glass of wine beside me. I was in my bedroom, which was spacious. Lucia had begun sharing a room with Romeo, which meant both Chiara and I had finally been given our own spaces. So long as we didn’t put up a fight or try to flee, we had freedom in the house. Giorgio was still forced downstairs, but we were able to visit him. According to Savio, the torture my brother had been forced to endure was finished.
I always sat on the floor and sang to myself. There was a notebook in front of me, which Savio had gifted me. He’d even purchased a pen in my favorite color—pastel blue. I wrote down the lyrics that came to mind. There was so much I wanted to say that I often felt as though I was being held back in my words. How could I describe the pain my family and I had suffered at the hands of the Cavettis? Not only was there the grief and the pain of having lost a sibling and my parents, but there was also the love I’d found with Savio.
It was all a mess—a jumble that I couldn’t sift through.
I stared at the page and sighed. I was blocked. Lyrics had always come to me naturally, but at that moment, I was torn. I wasn’t sure if I should even start writing about the experience I’d endured. It had been almost a year. Lucia even had a newborn, whose presence had changed everything and even made Angelo a bit more tolerable, especially since her baby was a boy, which was what Angelo had been hoping for all along. He wanted to mold the baby into his own image, as he had done with Romeo.
I jumped as the bedroom door opened. My lips formed into a smile when I saw Savio walk in, wearing his jogging pants and sweater. His face was reddened from his run, but he still looked amazing. I’d tried running around with him in the yard, and I always looked like a hot mess by the time we were finished. He didn’t mind, but I always did.
“How’s it going in here? Still trying to write?”
I drew a deep breath. “Yeah, but it all sucks. It’s not going anywhere, and I’m so blocked right now that I can barely get one word on the stupid page.”
He walked toward me and lowered himself to where I was sitting. He pushed back his thick black hair and grinned at me. “You’ll be fine. I think you’re just being too hard on yourself.”
“Oh, really? Then why don’t you try?” I asked him slyly. “I’m sure you could probably write something right now without any problems. Unlike me.”
He glanced down to the notebook and the pen. A silence passed between us as he stared at the blank page, as though debating what to do next. He tapped his fingers against the gray wood floor.
“I think I know what to write,” he finally said, lifting the pen from the ground.
He took the notebook off the ground and placed it in his lap. I couldn’t see what he was writing, but it looked as though it was only a few words. He covered the short sentence with his hand and raised his eyes to mine.
“Do you want to read it?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Of course I do.”
“Close your eyes.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and pursed my lips, causing him to smile.
“Seriously,” he said, chuckling to himself. “Close your eyes.”
I closed my eyes, thinking that it was all ridiculous—which it was. Savio was known for liking surprises. He’d told me that he and Natalia enjoyed scaring each other around corners, which I’d seen on a few occasions. He brought the notebook up from his lap and placed it in my hands. I excitedly waited. I had a feeling I already knew what he wrote. I could already see the words in my mind. Of course, it was either something funny or something sweet.You have something in your teeth, oryou’re beautiful. I smiled to myself at the thought of the words as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“Okay. Open your eyes.”
I felt him shuffle next to me as I opened my eyes and brought them down to the words scrawled on the page. They were bigger than what I was expecting, but I had also not expected the words there. My mouth dropped open, and I turned to face him.
Will you marry me?
He’d already pulled out the ring and placed it on his knee, his eyes sparkling with excitement. It felt as though chardonnay had been poured into my stomach, and everything in my body was buzzing. I was unable to stop the overwhelming sensation of love for him. I wasn’t expecting it, and the way he asked was so funny and so exciting.
“Are you serious?” I asked, trying to hold back the tears in my eyes.
He nodded gently. “I’ve never been more serious.”
I glanced down to the ring, which was sequestered perfectly in a small, red velvet box. It was beautiful. It had a gold band and a large diamond in the middle, with a number of small diamonds all around it. It reminded me of a flower.
He brought his arm from around me and pulled the ring out from its box. He was silent as he lifted the ring before my eyes. My vision became blurred with the tears I was holding back. My heart felt as though it would leap from my chest. It was a sensation I’d never felt before, and it was all too surreal. It was the happiest I’d felt since that first night we’d spent together. I felt a strange mix of love and desire, knowing that I’d found the right person for me in the most unconventional of ways.
“So, will you? I know you’ve been having a hard time, but I think this will be good for us. I don’t want to spend my life with anyone else.”
I was hesitant, and I wasn’t sure why. I knew it wasn’t because of Savio. It was because of his father. I had no idea how Angelo would take the news. If he reacted poorly, it meant that we were in for a world of difficulties. And they would be difficulties that I wasn’t sure we’d come back from. It was dangerous.
“Have you talked to your father about this?”
