Chapter 10 - The Real Ring
Six months later, the spring snow melted away, replaced by the warm, golden sunlight of a June afternoon sweeping across the rolling lawns of the Moretti estate.
The west wing doors were no longer locked.
Inside the bright, sunlit music room, Isabella sat by the open window, her fingers gently playing a cheerful melody on the grand piano while Leo danced around her chair, laughing hysterically as a golden retriever puppy chased his shoelaces.
She wasn't fully healed, and she might never be. But she spoke, she smiled, and every afternoon she sat with her son under the watchful, loving eye of a family that had finally been pieced back together.
Out on the stone patio overlooking the gardens, I stood by the stone balustrade, wearing a simple white sundress, watching the sunlight dance across the blooming rosebushes.
Heavy footsteps crunched on the stone behind me.
Strong arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me backward against a solid, familiar chest, while a warm chin rested gently on my shoulder.
“You’ve been staring at those roses for twenty minutes,” Ricardo murmured, pressing a soft kiss to the crook of my neck. “Are they not up to your corporate design standards?”
I smiled, leaning back into his embrace and resting my hands over his arms. “They’re perfect, Ricardo. Everything is perfect.”
He turned me around slowly in his arms, his dark eyes sparkling with a rare, unrestrained joy. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet-lined jeweler’s box.
“You know,” Ricardo said quietly, his voice dropping into a teasing purr, “technically, our fake engagement contract expired the day Marcus was arrested and sent to federal prison.”
My heart skipped a beat. I looked up at him, my breath catching in my throat. “Is that right?”
“It is,” Ricardo nodded solemnly. He snapped the velvet box open, revealing a brand-new ring—not the heavy, tactical diamond he had forced onto my finger at gunpoint months ago, but a delicate platinum band set with a single, brilliant sapphire surrounded by tiny white diamonds.
“So I’m formally terminating our professional arrangement,” Ricardo whispered, slipping the ring off my left hand and sliding the new one slowly onto my finger.
He dropped to one knee right there on the sunny stone patio, ignoring the dirt, the guards watching from the lawn, and the entire world beyond the iron gates.
“Elena Lane,” Ricardo said, his voice ringing with absolute, unbreakable devotion. “You walked into a room full of fear, handed my son a glass of milk, and taught me how to feel human again. I don't want a fiancée for protection. I don't want a fake bride to fool the city.”
He looked up into my eyes, his dark gaze shining with tears of pure love.
“Will you marry me for real? Forever? No rules, no exits?”
Tears spilled over my lashes, a blinding, joyous smile breaking across my face as I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him up off the stone.
May you like
“Yes,” I sobbed softly against his lips. “Yes, Ricardo. A million times yes.”
From the music room window, Leo clapped his hands together, shouting with childish delight as the golden retriever barked in approval, and for the first time in my life, I knew I was exactly where I was always meant to be.
