Chapter 7 - A Seat at the Table
One year later, Harbor Light Restaurant closed for a private event.
Not a mafia meeting.
Not a political fundraiser.
Not one of the secret dinners Boston society liked pretending never happened.
It was Rosa Marra's birthday.
Her first birthday home.
Mia stood beside the service station where everything had started.
She no longer wore a waitress uniform.
Enzo had bought Harbor Light six months earlier.
Mia had nearly killed him.
Then he'd handed ownership to Paul and the staff through a profit-sharing agreement.
She had forgiven him.
Eventually.
Daniel ran between tables wearing a small black suit.
Rosa caught him.
“No running.”
“Uncle Enzo said I could.”
Rosa looked across the room.
“Enzo!”
Enzo raised his hands.
“I said nothing.”
Daniel grinned.
“See?”
Rosa pointed at him.
“You're becoming dangerous.”
Daniel lowered his voice dramatically.
“I learned from Uncle Enzo.”
Mia nearly choked on her drink.
Enzo looked proud.
“Absolutely not,” Mia said.
Daniel laughed and ran toward Mrs. Caruso.
Rosa approached her brother.
“You're smiling.”
“No.”
“You are.”
“I smile.”
“Not voluntarily.”
Mia joined them.
“He does now.”
Enzo looked at her.
“A disturbing amount.”
Rosa's expression softened.
“One year.”
Enzo understood.
“One year.”
She touched the rose tattoo on his wrist.
“You never covered it.”
“Why would I?”
“Because for seven years it meant you failed.”
Enzo looked toward Daniel.
The boy was telling Mrs. Caruso an elaborate story with both hands moving.
Now he talked enough to occasionally be told to quiet down.
Enzo smiled.
“It doesn't mean that anymore.”
“What does it mean?”
“That I kept looking.”
Rosa hugged him.
This time Enzo didn't hesitate.
Later, Mia found him alone on the terrace overlooking Boston Harbor.
The storm from a year earlier felt impossible beneath the clear October sky.
“You disappear from your own parties now?” she asked.
“Rosa invited half the North End.”
“You threatened half the North End.”
“Past tense.”
Mia stood beside him.
“Daniel asked me something today.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“He asked if you're staying.”
Enzo looked at her.
“Where would I go?”
“I told him that.”
“He believed you?”
“No.”
Enzo frowned.
Mia smiled.
“He said you needed to say it.”
Enzo looked through the windows.
Daniel stood inside beside Rosa.
The two people who had taught him the same lesson from opposite ends of his life.
Silence could protect you.
But eventually, if you were lucky, you found people worth speaking for.
Enzo took Mia's hand.
“I'm staying.”
She squeezed his fingers.
“Good.”
“That's all?”
“What do you want, applause?”
“Possibly.”
She laughed.
Enzo reached into his pocket.
Mia's smile disappeared.
“Enzo.”
He produced a small black box.
“Oh, absolutely not.”
“You haven't even seen it.”
“I know what boxes look like.”
“Mia.”
“You're doing this on a restaurant terrace?”
“I had a complicated childhood.”
She laughed again.
He opened the box.
A simple diamond ring rested inside.
Nothing enormous.
Nothing designed to impress a newspaper.
Mia looked surprised.
Enzo noticed.
“You expected something bigger.”
“I expected something visible from Rhode Island.”
“Rosa threatened me.”
“Smart woman.”
Enzo didn't kneel.
That wasn't him.
Instead, he stood in front of Mia with the harbor behind them and spoke with the same calm certainty he'd once used to frighten an entire city.
“I spent most of my life believing love was another word for leverage.”
Mia's expression softened.
“Enzo—”
“I'm not finished.”
“Of course you're not.”
“Then your son pointed at a tattoo.”
Mia smiled.
“You scared him.”
“He scared me.”
“That sounds more accurate.”
“And you walked into my life while arguing with me every ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Usually five.”
He took her hand.
“You made my sister family again.”
“You did that.”
“You made Daniel trust his voice.”
“He did that.”
“You made me want tomorrow.”
Mia stopped smiling.
Enzo's voice softened.
“That one was you.”
For once, she had no joke.
“So,” he said, “Mia Slade, will you marry me?”
Daniel's voice shouted from behind the glass.
“SAY YES!”
Mia spun around.
Daniel, Rosa, Luca, Paul and Mrs. Caruso were crowded against the windows.
Enzo closed his eyes.
“I specifically told them not to watch.”
Mia laughed until tears filled her eyes.
Then she looked at the man Boston had once believed possessed no heart.
Maybe the city had been right about one thing.
Enzo Marra's heart had stopped trusting the world seven years ago.
But hearts were stubborn things.
Sometimes they started again.
Mia held out her hand.
“Yes.”
Enzo slid the ring onto her finger.
The restaurant erupted behind them.
Daniel burst through the doors.
“Does this mean he's really my dad now?”
Mia froze.
Enzo looked at the boy.
Daniel suddenly became uncertain.
“You don't have to—”
Enzo crouched in front of him.
“I've never been very good at being normal.”
Daniel smiled.
“I know.”
“I work too much.”
“I know.”
“I complain.”
“Mom says that.”
Mia covered her face.
Enzo continued.
“But if you're asking whether I'm going anywhere…”
Daniel waited.
Enzo placed a hand on his shoulder.
“No.”
Daniel threw his arms around him.
Enzo caught him.
Rosa began crying.
Luca looked away before anyone could catch him doing the same.
Mia wrapped her arms around both of them.
Inside Harbor Light, people raised their glasses.
Outside, Boston moved beneath the October night.
Seven years earlier, Enzo Marra had lost his sister and built an empire around the empty place she left behind.
Now Rosa was home.
Preston Hale was gone.
Daniel had his voice.
Mia had stopped running.
And the man everyone feared finally had something stronger than fear holding his world together.
May you like
A family.
This time, Enzo intended to keep it.
