Chapter 17 Stefan #3
"We do." I turned in his arms to face him. "We get years. Decades if we're lucky. Not stolen moments at prison visits. An actual future."
We lay there in comfortable silence. Both processing everything that had happened. The verdict. The celebration. The overwhelming relief of knowing we had time.
Eventually Matteo shifted. Pulled me up to sitting. His expression was serious. Vulnerable in ways I rarely saw.
"Stefan, I need to ask you something."
My heart started racing. "What?"
Matteo took a breath. "Marry me."
The world stopped.
"What?"
"Marry me. I know it's crazy. I know I'm a criminal who just barely avoided prison and you're the son of my enemy.
" His words came faster. More urgent. "But I want to marry you.
Want everyone to know you're mine permanently.
Want legal documents that say we chose each other. Want to give you a family. Want—"
"Yes." I cut him off. "Yes, I'll marry you."
He stopped. Stared at me. "You're sure? You don't want time to think about it?"
"I've been thinking about it since the moment you told me I was yours and you were mine. Since the moment I chose to stay. Since the moment I cut off my family to be with you." I cupped his face. "I'm sure. I want to marry you."
Matteo kissed me. Deep and thorough and full of promise and relief and love and everything I'd been feeling but couldn't articulate.
When we broke apart, I said: "But I need you to understand what this means to me. What I'm actually saying yes to."
"Tell me."
"For my entire life, family was something I was born into.
Something I couldn't choose. Something that controlled me and diminished me and treated me like property.
" My voice was thick with emotion. "The Romanos never asked what I wanted.
Never let me decide who I was or who I wanted to be.
They assigned me a role—pretty decoration—and expected me to perform it for the rest of my life. "
"Stefan—"
"Let me finish." I held his gaze. "Marrying you means choosing my family for the first time.
Deciding who I belong to. Making it official that I'm yours by choice, not by blood or obligation or expectation.
It means walking away from the Romanos permanently.
Probably legally changing my name. Publicly declaring I'm a DeLuca instead of a Romano. "
I paused. Made sure he understood the weight of what I was saying.
"It means burning every remaining bridge with my old life. My mother. My brothers. Giuseppe. Anyone who shares my blood. Because I can't be both. I can't be Stefan Romano and Stefan DeLuca. I have to choose." I swallowed hard. "And I'm choosing you. Choosing to be a DeLuca."
Matteo's eyes were wet. "Are you sure? Once you change your name, once you legally marry into this, there's no going back. The Romanos will never accept you again. Giuseppe will consider it the ultimate betrayal. Your mother—"
"Made her choice when she stood by while Giuseppe treated me like property.
My brothers made their choice when they never stood up for me.
Giuseppe made his choice when he sent me here expecting me to fail.
" My voice was firm. "Now I'm making mine.
I choose you. I choose the Vitales. I choose to be Stefan DeLuca. "
"What does that mean to you?" Matteo asked quietly. "Being a DeLuca?"
I thought about it. About what family meant when you actually got to choose it.
"It means belonging somewhere by choice instead of by accident of birth.
It means being valued for who I am instead of what I look like.
It means having people who actually see me instead of just the role they assigned me.
" I held his gaze. "It means having a family that chose me back.
That wanted me. That fought for me when things got hard instead of throwing me away. "
"We do want you. All of us. Not just me."
"I know. I can feel it. The way Sandro trusts me with the books.
The way Elio grudgingly respects my work.
The way Luca treats me like an actual person instead of an obligation.
" I smiled slightly. "The way Emilio looks at me sometimes like he sees a kindred spirit—someone else who chose a Vitale over everything they'd known. "
"Then yes." Matteo pulled me closer. "Yes, be a DeLuca. Take my name. Be part of this family officially. Legally. In every way that matters."
"You're sure you want that? Want me taking your name? Want everyone to know I chose you over my blood family? Want the complications that come with that?"
"I want exactly that." His voice was fierce. Certain. "I want you to be a DeLuca. Want you to have a family you chose instead of one you were born into. Want to give you that choice officially. Legally. In every way that matters."
"Then yes. I'll marry you."
We held each other while it sank in.
We were getting married. Building a life together. Choosing each other permanently.
"When?" Matteo asked. "When do you want to get married?"
"Soon. I don't want to wait." I kissed him. "I've spent enough of my life waiting for things I couldn't have. Let's do this now while we actually can. While we're both free and here and able to make this choice."
"Okay. Soon." Matteo smiled—genuine and bright in a way I rarely saw. "My husband."
"Your husband." I tested the word. Liked how it sounded. How it felt in my mouth. "Stefan DeLuca."
"You like that?"
"I love it. How do we do this? Legally, I mean. Do we need a lawyer? Do we just go to city hall? Do we—"
"We'll figure it out. Diana can probably help with the legal paperwork. We'll get a marriage license. Have a small ceremony. Make it official." He paused. "Do you want a big wedding? Something public?"
"God, no." The thought was horrifying. "I want small. Private. Just the people who matter. Sandro and Emilio. Elio and Luca. Maybe Diana since she kept you out of prison. No media. No spectacle. Just... us."
"That sounds perfect." Matteo kissed my forehead. "Small and private and ours."
"When can we do it? How soon?"
"There's a waiting period for marriage licenses in New York. A day or two, I think. Then we can have a ceremony whenever we want." He thought about it. "We could probably do it within a week if we move fast."
"A week." I smiled. "A week until I'm officially Stefan DeLuca."
"You're already Stefan DeLuca in every way that matters. The paperwork is just making it legal."
"The paperwork matters. It means I can't go back. Can't change my mind. Can't wake up one day and decide to return to the Romanos." I met his eyes. "It makes this permanent. Irrevocable. Mine."
"Ours," Matteo corrected. "This is ours. You're mine and I'm yours and we're doing this together."
"Ours," I agreed.
We lay back down. Tangled together. Both overwhelmed by everything that had happened in one impossible day.
The verdict. The celebration. The proposal. The promise of a future we thought we'd lost.
"I can't believe this is real," I whispered. "This morning I was preparing to lose you to prison. Tonight I'm engaged. How did we get here?"
"Reasonable doubt. Diana's brilliant defense. A jury that actually questioned the evidence instead of accepting it blindly." Matteo's arms tightened around me. "Luck. Fate. Whatever you want to call it. We got impossibly lucky, Stefan."
"We did." I pressed closer. "And I'm not wasting it. I'm not taking a single day for granted. We're getting married and building a life and having all the years we thought we'd lost."
"Yes. All of that. Starting now."
I fell asleep in Matteo's arms. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Happier than I'd ever been.
Once, I was Giuseppe Romano's forgotten son. A pretty face at charity events. Property to be used and discarded when convenient.
Now, I was Matteo DeLuca's fiancé. A valued member of the Vitale organization. Someone who'd chosen his own path instead of following the one assigned by blood and birth.
The journey from prisoner to partner to fiancé had been insane. Probably unhealthy. Definitely complicated. Most therapists would have a field day analyzing it.
But it was my journey. My choice. My life.
And I'd never been more certain of anything.