Chapter 9 - REBUILDING TRUST
With the external threats gone, Ethan and I were finally forced to confront the space between us. The passion was there—it had never left—but there were four years of scars to heal.
One evening, after Leo was asleep, I found Ethan in the east parlor, sitting at the piano his mother had cherished. His fingers ghosted over the keys, playing a melancholic, beautiful melody. I stood in the doorway, captivated by the raw emotion pouring from his hands.
"I used to play this when I couldn't sleep," he said without turning around. "After you left. It was the only thing that calmed my mind."
I walked in and sat beside him on the bench. "I never stopped loving you, Ethan. But I was so angry. For so long."
He stopped playing and turned to me, his eyes full of regret. "I know. And I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I should have protected you from my mother. I should have looked harder. I should have known."
He reached out, tracing the line of my jaw. "Rosa, I meant what I said to my mother. I want to marry you. Not out of obligation. Not just for Leo. But because you are the only woman who has ever made this house feel like a home."
He slid off the bench, kneeling on the marble floor—the same spot where Leo had fallen weeks ago. He pulled a velvet box from his pocket and opened it, revealing a stunning, classic diamond ring.
"Rosa, will you do me the honor of being my wife? Will you let me be the husband you deserve, and the father Leo needs?"
Tears spilled over my lashes. The years of struggling, of hiding, of working until my hands bled—it all washed away in the warmth of his gaze.
May you like
"Yes," I sobbed, pulling him up by his lapels and kissing him deeply. "Yes, Ethan."
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