Katie hands me my bouquet—more wildflowers and tied with a simple cream ribbon—and we make our way down to the chapel. The late afternoon sun filters through the trees, creating a deep green canopy on the path.
Danny is waiting at the chapel entrance, looking uncharacteristically nervous in a navy suit. When he sees me, his face breaks into a genuine smile.
“Mrs. Marchetti,” he says, offering his arm. “You look stunning.”
“Thank you for doing this,” I tell him as I take his arm. “I know walking me down the aisle wasn’t exactly in your job description.”
“It’s an honor,” he says simply, patting my hand. “Luca is a different man because of you; a better man. So thank you for giving him a second chance.”
My throat tightens with emotion. “He gave me one too,” I whisper.
Danny winks at me and opens the chapel doors, and there he is.
Luca stands at the altar, wearing a charcoal suit that makes his dark eyes look even darker. The chapel is empty except for Katie, who slips in behind us to take her place. No guests, no witnesses beyond our two closest friends. Just intimate and small and perfect.
The moment Luca’s gaze finds mine, everything else fades away. The chapel, the nervousness, the past. All of it disappears until there’s only him, looking at me like I’m the answer to every question he’s ever asked.
The walk down the aisle feels both too long and too short. I want to run to him, but I also want to savor every step, every moment of choosing to walk toward this man who was once my captor and is now my everything.
When I reach him, Danny places my hand in Luca’s. “Take care of her,” he murmurs, so quietly only we can hear. “Both of them.”
“Always,” Luca promises, his voice rough with emotion.
Danny steps back to stand beside Katie, and then it’s just the four of us in this small chapel, witnessing something sacred.
Luca takes both my hands in his, and I can feel them trembling slightly. He’s nervous. Luca Marchetti, who faces down rival organizations without flinching, is nervous about promising me his love in front of two people.
“Giuliana,” he begins, his voice thick with emotion. “Seven months ago, you stood at an altar and made promises you didn’t want to make. You agreed to a marriage that was about revenge and control and all the worst parts of who I was.”
He pauses, his thumbs stroking across my knuckles. “Today, I’m asking you to make different promises. I’m asking you to choose me. Not because you’re afraid of what I’ll do if you don’t, but because you want to. Because somewhere in the mess of how we started, we found something real.”
I’m crying unabashedly, but I don’t try to stop them.
“I promise to be your partner, not your captor,” Luca continues. “To listen when you speak, to respect your choices, to build a life with you where you have as much power as I do. I promise to be the kind of father our child deserves—patient and present and everything my own father wasn’t.”
Katie sniffles behind me. Our baby kicks against my belly, as if agreeing with him, and Luca’s eyes drop to where his child grows.
“I promise to love you not just today, not just when it’s easy, but through every hard moment we’ll face.” He wipes his eyes briefly. “Through sleepless nights with a crying baby and arguments about whose turn it is to change diapers and all the ordinary, beautiful chaos of life.” He’s smiling now, even through his tears, and it takes my breath away. “I promise to be worthy of the second chance you’ve given me. Every single day, for the rest of our lives.”
I'm crying so hard I can barely see, because oh my god, how do I topthat?
“My turn?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Your turn,” he confirms, squeezing my hands gently.
I take a shaky breath, trying to collect myself enough to speak. The vows I practiced last night have completely fled my mind, so I speak from the heart instead.
“Luca,” I start, and my voice cracks immediately. “When I first met you, I-I hated you. You were everything I feared. You took away my freedom, my clinic, and my life as I knew it.”
I see him flinch slightly, but I squeeze his hands tighter.
“But somewhere in that darkness, I found you. The real you, beneath all the anger. I found a man capable of extraordinary kindness. A man who reads terrible romance novels out loud to make me laugh.” Luca playfully winces at me bringing that up, but whoever would have thought that the billionaire werewolf novel I read to him in the hospital would spark his love for reading? Turns out, even crime lords love romance books. “Who brings me wildflowers because he knows they mean something. Who loves so fiercely it terrifies him.”
Luca bites his lip, more tears trailing down his cheeks.
“I promise to stand beside you as your equal, your partner, your wife in more than just name,” I continue, my voice growing steadier. “I promise to be honest with you, even when the truth is hard. To fight with you when I think you’re wrong, and celebrate with you when you’re right.” I place one of his hands on my belly, where our baby is currently doing somersaults. His eyes widen and he smiles so beautifully it makes my heart clench. “I promise to love our family—you, me, and this little one. Through every beautiful moment and every challenge we’ll face.”
I pause, gathering courage for the next part. “You gave me a second chance when you could have destroyed me completely. You let me choose you freely when you could have kept me prisoner. That kind of grace, that kind of growth”—my throat grows tight—“that’s what I’m promising to honor for the rest of my life. Not the man you were, but the man you’re becoming.
