Chapter 7 - This Time, I Said Yes
Six months later, I stood inside a small chapel overlooking the Hudson River.
No ballroom.
No two hundred guests.
No champagne trays.
No assassins.
Just family.
Isabella sat in the front pew crying before anything had even happened.
Enzo whispered, “She started twenty minutes ago.”
Dominic answered, “I noticed.”
Ellen sat beside Isabella.
Her treatment had worked better than doctors expected.
That alone felt like a miracle.
Victor Costa was awaiting trial on multiple federal charges.
Anthony Vale had become a cooperating witness.
Dominic had spent months separating legitimate Rossi businesses from everything that could drag innocent employees into his world.
He couldn't erase his past.
But he could decide what came next.
And so could I.
The priest stood before us.
The same priest from the hospital.
He looked at Dominic.
“We're doing this properly today.”
Dominic nodded.
“That appears to be the plan.”
The priest looked at me.
“And you're awake?”
“Very.”
Everyone laughed.
Dominic didn't.
He was nervous.
That might have been the strangest thing I'd ever witnessed.
He took my hand.
My scars were hidden beneath my dress, but we both knew they were there.
Seven reminders of the night everything changed.
Dominic removed the original hospital ring from my finger.
“I owe you something.”
“A refund?”
“A choice.”
The chapel became silent.
He held the ring between us.
“Sofia Bennett, six months ago I put this on your hand because I was afraid.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Dominic Rossi admits fear?”
“Don't interrupt. This is difficult.”
Enzo coughed to hide a laugh.
Dominic continued.
“I was afraid Costa would kill you. I was afraid I'd fail to protect you.”
His voice lowered.
“And I was afraid you'd discover the truth about Elena and blame my family.”
“I almost did.”
“I know.”
“But your mother protected mine.”
“Yes.”
“And you protected Ellen.”
“Yes.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Continue.”
Dominic looked at me.
“This time there are no enemies outside. No doctors. No legal strategy.”
He held up the ring.
“If you say no, you walk out that door with your own life, your own money, and your own name.”
I smiled.
“I already have my own name.”
His mouth curved slightly.
“Yes, you do.”
The priest asked the question.
“Do you, Sofia Bennett, freely take Dominic Rossi as your husband?”
I made Dominic wait.
Five seconds.
Ten.
He whispered, “You're enjoying this.”
“Very much.”
“Sofia.”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
Isabella burst into tears.
Dominic slipped the ring onto my finger.
This time, I felt it.
This time, I watched him do it.
This time, I chose him.
After the ceremony, Isabella approached carrying a small envelope.
“This came this morning.”
There was no return address.
My name was written across the front.
SOFIA BENNETT.
My hands trembled.
Dominic immediately noticed.
“What is it?”
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A silver-haired woman stood beside a lake somewhere I didn't recognize.
Around her neck was a pendant identical to mine.
On the back were six handwritten words.
Ellen kept you safe. I'm sorry.
Below them:
Love, Mom.
I couldn't breathe.
Dominic read it over my shoulder.
“Elena.”
“She survived.”
Ellen covered her mouth.
Isabella began crying again.
Enzo sighed.
“Of course.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What?”
“Nothing. Your family apparently doesn't believe in normal weddings.”
I laughed through my tears.
Dominic wrapped an arm carefully around me.
“We'll find her.”
I looked at the photograph.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No?”
“She found me.”
I turned the photograph over again.
There was an address beneath the message.
Dominic smiled.
“Apparently she did.”
That afternoon, we left the chapel together.
Six months earlier, I'd walked into the Aster Crown Hotel worried about four hundred dollars.
I left with seven scars, a secret buried for twenty-six years, two mothers who had risked everything to keep me alive, and a husband I'd never expected to love.
Dominic opened the car door.
I stopped.
“What?”
He looked concerned.
I pointed beneath the dashboard.
“I'm checking.”
“For what?”
“Considering my experience with your family? Everything.”
He laughed and offered his hand.
I took it.
The first time Dominic Rossi put a ring on my finger, I was unconscious and fighting for my life.
The second time, I was standing on my own feet.
And when he asked me to become his wife again, nobody decided for me.
Not Victor Costa.
Not Dominic Rossi.
May you like
Not the past.
I said yes myself.
