Chapter 8 - The Wedding Nobody Saw Coming
Six months later, the Moretti mansion looked completely different.
The black cars still came and went.
The guards still watched the gates.
But the house no longer felt like a fortress.
The Northstar money had been dismantled.
Luca had closed several operations connected to his father's old business.
He created legitimate companies.
Real businesses.
Real employees.
No hidden books.
No secret accounts.
No bodies.
My role changed too.
I wasn't a maid anymore.
Luca gave me control of the estate's charitable foundation.
I worked with hospitals.
Shelters.
Scholarship programs.
Programs for families trying to rebuild after financial violence.
My first project was named after my mother.
The Evelyn Brooks Scholarship.
At the opening ceremony, Luca stood beside me.
“You'd hate how much attention you're getting.”
“I do.”
“You're smiling.”
“I can do both.”
He laughed.
Then he handed me a box.
I stared.
“No.”
He smiled.
“Open it.”
“You have a strange obsession with boxes.”
“This one doesn't contain a body, a marriage certificate, or evidence of murder.”
“That is exactly what worries me.”
I opened it.
A pair of simple pearl earrings.
I looked up.
“Why?”
“You once told me you had never owned anything that mattered for sentimental reasons.”
“I said that?”
“Yes.”
“These are beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“That line probably worked on Vanessa.”
“It didn't.”
We both went quiet.
“I shouldn't have said that.”
“No.”
“But I'm not her.”
“No.”
He took my hand.
“You're you.”
Then he knelt.
I stared.
“Luca.”
He opened another box.
Inside was a ring.
Simple.
Elegant.
Not extravagant.
I started crying.
“You said not to give me expensive things.”
“I listened.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“What is this?”
“A promise.”
He looked into my eyes.
“I spent my life believing power meant controlling what happened next.”
He smiled.
“Then you walked into my dining room carrying flowers with a broken ankle.”
I laughed.
“You're never going to let that go.”
“Never.”
He continued.
“You taught me that protecting someone doesn't mean deciding their life for them.”
“You taught me to trust.”
“And I want the chance to spend the rest of my life earning that trust.”
He lifted the ring.
“Natalie Brooks, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
He slipped the ring onto my finger.
Then someone shouted from the terrace.
“I knew you'd say yes!”
Margaret.
My brother.
Daniel.
Even Julian.
They were all watching.
I laughed.
“You knew?”
“For three months.”
I looked at Luca.
“You've been planning this for three months?”
“Four.”
I pretended to be angry.
“You're impossible.”
He kissed me.
Then the fireworks began.
That night, after everyone left, I stood alone on the terrace.
I thought about the day I first entered this mansion.
I had been a maid.
Invisible.
Careful.
Afraid.
Now I stood there wearing an engagement ring.
Not because I had married into power.
Because I had found someone who chose me without caring where I came from.
Luca came up behind me.
“Cold?”
“A little.”
He wrapped a coat around my shoulders.
“You know what my favorite part of all this is?”
“What?”
“You still argue with me.”
May you like
I smiled.
“Some things never change.”
