Epilogue
One year later
“ I need the shade, Silas,” Lilith groaned behind me, her voice dragging like she’d just spent three days crawling through the desert. “I’m going to fucking die.”
“You’re dramatic,” I muttered, but I didn’t let go of her hand. If anything, I held on tighter—half because I didn’t trust her not to collapse just to prove a point, half because… well, because I liked holding her hand.
“I’m serious,” she gasped. “If I drop dead, just leave me here. Let the locals mourn me. Tell my story. Make it sound tragic and mysterious.”
I snorted. “Yeah? Want me to tell everyone you perished bravely on a cobblestone street after a long, hard battle with the weather?”
“Exactly,” she muttered. “Say I was stoic. A fighter. A tragic beauty.”
I turned fully, walking backwards so I could watch her. Her dark hair was braided back the way she’d asked for most mornings—ever since she found out I’d been the one braiding it for her when she first came to the penthouse.
Her black and white sundress clung to her in all the right places, the hem flicking around her inked thighs as she moved. Her silver locket glinted at her throat.
Sweat clung to her hairline, little beads tracing down her temples and disappearing beneath the delicate dip of her collarbone. She was flushed—cheeks warm, chest rising fast—but her eyes were still sharp. Still burning with that stubborn fire she carried everywhere she went.
My beautiful, impossible, woman.
“You want a memorial too?” I asked dryly. “Plaque on the wall? ‘ Here lies Lilith Whitlock—brutally slain by the Italian sunshine.’”
“Add a quote underneath, ” she shot back. “Something poetic. Something that makes people cry.”
I grinned. “‘Her death-defying beauty was only rivalled by her inability to follow simple instructions.’”
She barked out a laugh—short and sharp, like she hadn’t expected it to slip loose. But her steps were slower now, her breathing a little too shallow.
“Come on, sweetheart,” I said, turning back around and tugging her forward. “We’re nearly there.”
“Where?” she muttered, dragging her feet like a stubborn kid.
“You’ll see.”
The street narrowed, twisting away from the crowded square into quiet, stone walls covered in ivy and shuttered windows painted in soft pastel shades.
The air smelled warmer here, like sun-soaked stone, fresh espresso, and blooming jasmine.
Somewhere close, a guitarist strummed one of those slow, lazy tunes that drifted in the air like cigarette smoke curling from a balcony.
Lilith was still muttering something about heatstroke and murder behind me, but when I stopped at the end of the street, she stumbled to a halt too.
I felt her eyes on me as I stepped forward and rested a hand against the worn stone wall.
The street opened up into a little courtyard, tucked away like it didn’t want to be found.
The stone walls were crumbling in places, ivy creeping along the edges.
Little clay pots of herbs and wildflowers sat on crooked windowsills.
A cracked fountain stood in the centre, water trickling lazily from its spout.
She wandered over to a low stone wall, fingers skimming across some old, faded shapes scratched into the stone. A name, a date, some half-erased message that didn’t mean anything to anyone anymore.
She didn’t know I was watching.
Didn’t know how completely wrecked I was by her.
The way her hair caught the light, the way her skin flushed the lightest shade of pink. The way she looked at this place— my place—like it mattered. Like it was hers too.
I hadn’t been back in years. Not since… well, not since I was a kid. I used to run through this courtyard every summer, scuffing up my shoes on the cobblestones, chasing pigeons, and sucking on the sticky remnants of whatever treat Nonno had snuck me while Nonna pretended not to notice.
I swallowed hard and checked my pocket. Again. Third time in the last five minutes.
Yep. Still there.
And yet, it didn’t feel real. Like the second I reached for that ring, it’d vanish. Like I’d wake up back in that cold, empty penthouse before I ever knew her at all.
My chest cinched, starving me of oxygen.
Pull yourse lf together.
I stepped quietly behind her, sliding my arms around her waist and pressing my face into her hair.
She startled for a second, her hand freezing against the wall.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said as I kissed her temple. “Just needed to hold you.”
Her hand slid up to cover mine, her fingers curling over my knuckles.
“I was never supposed to have this,” I muttered.
She shifted in my arms, turning to face me with a slight frown. “Have what?”
“You,” I said. “I wasn’t supposed to have you .”
She snorted. “Please, you say that like I’m some priceless artefact. I’m more like one of those dodgy mystery storage units where you don’t know if you’re getting gold or garbage.”
I huffed a breathless laugh and shook my head. “That’s not what I mean.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, quieter now.
Her face softened, but there was a crease between her brows, like she was bracing herself. She knew me too well. She could feel the way my chest was tightening, the way my fingers kept flexing like I couldn’t figure out what to do with them.
“Silas…” she murmured, her frown deepening. “What’s going on?”
“I’m getting to it,” I muttered, shifting awkwardly. My hand slipped into my pocket, fingers curling tight around the ring box.
“I’m…” I exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through my hair. “I’m really bad at this.”
“Bad at what?”
I opened my mouth, but the words jammed up in my throat. My pulse was hammering in my ears, blood roaring loud and relentless.
Just say it.
Her gaze dropped to my pocket, her eyes flickering with something sharp. “Silas…”
“I wasn’t supposed to have you. But I do. And— fuck , I can’t lose you now.”
My heart was slamming so hard it was a miracle my ribs didn’t crack.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I sank to one knee.
Her eyes went wide.
“No,” she said sharply, pointing at me like I was about to commit a crime. “No, no, no. Please, for the love of God, don’t get down on one knee.”
I blinked up at her. “Lilith—”
“Silas, no!” she half-yelled, half-laughed, clearly panicking. Before I could even speak, she dropped to her knees too, landing with an awkward thud right in front of me.
“What are you doing?” I laughed.
“I don’t know!” she shot back, wide-eyed and frantic. “I panicked! Oh my God, get up. ”
“ You get up.”
“No, you get up!”
For a second, all that tension cracked wide open and let the air back in. But then my chest squeezed again with that sharp, suffocating feeling. Like I was standing on the edge of something huge. Something I couldn’t mess up.
“I love you,” I said, spilling my heart onto the stone in front of her. “I love you more than I know what to do with. And if you let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”
Her face softened, her eyes wide and glassy, but her breath hitched like she still wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
I pulled the box from my pocket and flicked it open.
The ring wasn’t flashy—no giant diamond or twisted metal. Just something simple. Something her. An elegant vintage band—silver with tiny dark stones set in the curve. Understated but steady. Beautiful and strong. Just like her.
“Marry me,” I whispered. “Please.”
Please say something, Lilith.
Her mouth opened, then closed again, like she couldn’t get the words out. Her hand lifted halfway, shaking slightly, before she stopped and pressed her knuckles hard against her mouth.
“You idiot,” she finally choked out. “You big, stupid behemoth of a man.”
Her laugh broke through, breath hitching hard. “Okay,” she swallowed thickly. “Yes. Yes, Silas. Yes.”
I didn’t even remember moving—I was just there, wrapping my arms around her before she could finish the words.
I kissed her hair, her temple, her mouth, whispering against her skin between kisses, like I couldn’t say it enough.
“Ti amo, ti amo, ti amo…”
Her hands were in my hair, twisting tight like she was trying to hold me together.
“I love you,” I whispered again, voice breaking. “Per sempre.”
“For fucking ever,” she whispered back.
And then she kissed me, hard and messy, like she was trying to crawl inside my ribs and set up a home in there.
I kissed her deeper, like I could drown in her and still come up breathing. My hand slid down her waist, fingers curling at her hip, tugging her closer.
Her fingers skimmed down my stomach, over my belt, and before I could stop her, she cupped me through my slacks.
“Lilith,” I groaned, voice scraping out of my throat. “No.”
She pulled back. “Why not?”
I gestured vagu ely to our surroundings—the quiet little courtyard, the pastel-painted windows, the soft strum of the guitar drifting down the street.
“Because,” I said, breathless. “We’re in the open. At sunset. And I’m not about to fuck my future wife on the goddamn cobblestones.”
Her mouth twitched, her hand still stubbornly resting where it shouldn’t. “Future wife, huh?”
“You said yes,” I reminded her, dragging her hand away before I lost the last bit of self-control I had left. “That makes you my future wife. So, come on. I’m not giving someone’s grandparents a free show.”
She snorted, but let me pull her to her feet.
We wove through the streets, her hand snug in mine. I would’ve run, but I hadn’t sprinted across cobblestones since I was a kid, and I wasn’t about to risk breaking something now, or pissing her off by suggesting exercising. Not when I’d just somehow, miraculously convinced her to marry me.
Our Airbnb was tucked away down a quieter street, a little three-story building with weathered terracotta bricks and arched wooden shutters that probably hadn’t been replaced in a hundred years.
The doorway was framed by ivy curling stubbornly up the stone, and a wrought iron lantern hung crooked above the door, flickering faintly in the evening light.