Chapter 6 - The Ring Comes Back
Three months later, Clara returned to nursing school.
She also returned to Rossi House far more often than Dominic expected.
Mostly because of Isabella.
At least that was what Clara claimed.
“You’re here again,” Dominic said one evening.
“Your mother invited me.”
“My mother has invited you fourteen times this month.”
“She likes me.”
“She’s trying to manipulate us.”
Isabella shouted from the kitchen.
“I can hear you!”
Clara laughed.
Dominic watched her.
The gunshot wounds had healed.
The fear had not completely disappeared.
But neither had Clara.
She had testified.
She had reclaimed her mother’s story.
And she had refused every offer of money Dominic made.
One evening, Dominic found her studying at the dining table.
He placed an envelope beside her.
She opened it.
Tuition payment.
She pushed it back.
“No.”
“It isn’t charity.”
“It looks remarkably like charity.”
“You saved my mother.”
“I didn’t send an invoice.”
Dominic sat opposite her.
“Then tell me what you want.”
Clara closed her textbook.
“Why do you always assume everything has a price?”
“Because usually it does.”
“I don’t.”
“I’m learning that.”
She studied him.
“What do you want?”
Dominic did not answer immediately.
Then he reached into his pocket.
The Rossi ring.
Clara stared.
“Dominic.”
“This is the ring I put on you when you couldn’t choose.”
He placed it on the table.
“I hated myself for that.”
“You were protecting me.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
She said nothing.
“So this time, you choose.”
Clara looked between him and the ring.
“Are you proposing?”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Dominic sighed.
“I had a speech.”
“That was the speech?”
“It was better before you interrupted.”
“Try again.”
He stood.
Walked around the table.
And knelt.
Clara’s teasing expression disappeared.
“Dominic…”
“The first time I put this ring on your hand, I did it because I thought my name could protect you.”
He looked up.
“I was wrong.”
“How?”
“You never needed my name to make you brave.”
Clara’s eyes softened.
“You proved that before I even knew yours.”
He opened his hand.
“This time the ring means something different.”
“What?”
“That I want you beside me.”
Clara swallowed.
“Not behind you?”
“No.”
“Not under your protection?”
“No.”
“Not because I saved Isabella?”
Dominic smiled.
“Definitely not.”
“Then why?”
“Because you argue with me.”
“That’s your reason?”
“You make my mother laugh. You terrify Enzo.”
“Also good.”
“You walk into rooms where everyone fears me and tell me when I’m being an idiot.”
“Frequently.”
“And because when I thought you were dying…”
His voice lowered.
“I discovered there was suddenly a future I wanted that I hadn’t known existed.”
Clara went silent.
Dominic held out the ring.
“Clara Evans, will you marry me?”
She stared at him.
Then asked, “Lawfully?”
He laughed.
“Yes.”
“While conscious?”
“Yes.”
“With an actual license?”
“Clara.”
“And I get to read everything before signing?”
“You can bring three attorneys.”
“Five.”
“Fine.”
She smiled.
“Yes.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
He slid the ring onto her finger.
This time it fit.
Isabella suddenly screamed from the kitchen.
“FINALLY!”
Clara burst out laughing.
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Mother!”
Enzo appeared in the doorway holding champagne.
“I told her you’d do it tonight.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You were both listening?”
Isabella walked in.
“This is my house.”
Clara kissed Dominic.
May you like
His complaints stopped immediately.
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