Emma wanted to argue.
But Teresa was right.
She’d already decided.
Six months later, Luca proposed in the garden under the oak tree where Emma had gone to process her anger and her fear and her love.
It was early morning. The light was soft. Emma was still in her pajamas.
Luca knelt in the grass and held out a ring that had belonged to his grandmother.
“I was going to plan something elaborate,” he said. “Something worthy of you. But then I realized you’d probably hate it.”
Emma laughed through tears. “You’re right.”
“So I’m doing this here. Now. In the place where you decided to stay.”
Emma’s chest ached.
“I love you, Emma. I love the way you argue with me. The way you make me laugh. The way you’ve turned this house into a home. I love your sister. I love the way you’ve survived everything and still managed to be kind. I love—”
“Yes,” Emma interrupted.
Luca stopped. “I haven’t finished.”
“I know. But I’m saying yes anyway.”
Luca’s smile could have lit the entire city.
He slid the ring onto her finger.
It fit perfectly.
They were married three months later in the garden, surrounded by family and friends and all the people who had watched them transform from a fake relationship into something undeniably real.
Sophie cried through the entire ceremony.
Teresa cried harder.
Luca cried when Emma walked down the aisle, which surprised everyone except Emma.
When the officiant asked if they had vows, Emma spoke first.
“I came to this house because I was desperate. I stayed because I was curious. I fell in love because you made me feel like I was worth fighting for. You saved my sister. You gave me a home. You looked at me like I mattered when the world had spent years teaching me I didn’t. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I promise to spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of the way you love me.”
Luca’s voice was wrecked when he spoke.
“I hired you because I was a coward. I fell in love with you because you refused to let me stay one. You walked into my life and rewrote everything I thought I knew about love and family and home. You made me laugh. You made me hope. You made me believe I could be something other than the weapon my family needed. I don’t deserve you. But I’m selfish enough to marry you anyway.”
The officiant was crying.
Half the guests were crying.
Emma and Luca were definitely crying.
When they kissed, the garden erupted in applause.
And Emma, who had started this story as a maid hired to sabotage a date, became Emma Moretti.
