Chapter 12 – THE TICKET TO FOREVER

I gasped, looking at him.

The reporters shouted louder. Vanessa actually stumbled backward, her sunglasses slipping down her nose.

“Co-owner?” she shrieked. “You gave a maid half the estate?!”

“I gave my family their home,” Luca corrected.

He turned to the security guards.

“Miss Bellini is trespassing. If she doesn’t leave in ten seconds, have her arrested.”

Vanessa didn’t wait. The humiliation was total. The cameras were already turning on her, reporters asking why she tried to steal a child. She covered her face and ran to her car, speeding away down the long, oak-lined road.

Luca turned away from the press, not giving them another word.

He carried Ellie back inside, his free hand firmly holding mine.

When the heavy wooden doors closed behind us, the silence of the foyer was peaceful. Beautiful.

“Co-owner?” I asked, my voice shaking. “Luca, you didn’t have to say that just for the cameras.”

He set Ellie down. She immediately ran to the kitchen to find Mrs. Carter for breakfast.

Luca reached into his pocket.

He pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to me.

It was a deed.

My name was printed next to his. It had been signed and notarized three days ago.

“I didn’t say it for the cameras,” Luca murmured, stepping close. “I did it because I wanted you to know that no matter what happened with my mother, or the council, or Liam… no one could ever throw you out of this house again.”

I stared at the paper. The ink was black and final.

He had given me the one thing I had been chasing my entire life.

Security. A place where I couldn’t be discarded.

“You did this before we even kissed,” I whispered.

“I did this the day I realized my house felt empty when you weren’t in the room,” he answered.

I dropped the paper onto the entryway table.

I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him down to me.

The kiss wasn’t soft this time. It was fierce, desperate, and overflowing with all the love I had been holding back for eleven months.

When we finally broke apart, we were both breathless.

Through the archway, I could hear Ellie laughing in the kitchen, demanding extra whipped cream from the terrifying head housekeeper.

Luca rested his forehead against mine, his hands resting on my waist.

“So,” the mafia boss whispered, a wicked smile playing on his lips. “Do you think you can handle living with me?”

I touched the heavy gold crest at my throat, then looked into the eyes of the man who had fought the world to keep us.

“Always,” I promised.

And for the first time in my life, I knew it was the absolute truth.

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