Chapter 9 - The Choice Sophia Finally Got to Make
A year after the Christmas Eve that changed everything, I bought a ring.
Then kept it in my desk for four months.
Enzo found out.
“You're afraid.”
“No.”
“You faced Carlo Vitale with federal agents hiding in your study.”
“Yes.”
“But asking Sophia to marry you is frightening.”
“Yes.”
He laughed for several minutes.
I considered firing him.
Unfortunately, he no longer worked directly for me, which made firing him complicated.
Sophia and I had been together for almost a year.
Not the version of together my family understood.
No mergers.
No lawyers arranging assets before feelings.
She maintained her apartment for months before eventually moving into the townhouse with Lily.
We chose furniture together.
That sounds unimportant until you grow up in houses where everything is inherited.
Lily chose a yellow couch.
It was horrifying.
We bought it.
The old Moretti estate sold in spring.
Victoria resisted.
Then admitted the house contained more ghosts than bedrooms.
Part of the legal proceeds funded restitution. Part moved into transparent family trusts. Victoria bought a smaller house near us.
“Smaller” was relative.
She still had eight bedrooms.
We teased her.
She ignored us.
One Sunday, Sophia found me standing in Lily’s bedroom staring at a framed photograph.
The photograph from beneath the staircase.
Sophia and Lily beside the lake.
Next to it sat a newer photograph.
All three of us.
“What's wrong?” Sophia asked.
“Nothing.”
“You're doing your brooding face.”
“I don't have one.”
“You do.”
I looked at the old picture.
“I missed three years.”
“Yes.”
“I missed her first word.”
“Yes.”
“First steps.”
“Yes.”
“You're not helping.”
Sophia touched my hand.
“You can't love the past hard enough to enter it.”
I looked at her.
“That sounds suspiciously wise.”
“I stole it from your therapist.”
“Traitor.”
She smiled.
“But you were there when she learned to ride a bike.”
True.
She had crashed directly into my leg.
“You were there for her first school recital.”
She forgot every line and waved at me for four minutes.
“You were there when she lost her first tooth.”
She accused Henry the teddy bear of stealing it.
“And you're here now.”
Sophia squeezed my hand.
“That is the part you control.”
I understood.
That evening, Lily found the ring.
Of course.
I had hidden it inside a locked desk drawer.
Apparently three-year-old Lily had grown into five-year-old Lily with advanced investigative capabilities.
She came into the kitchen holding the box.
“Daddy.”
My soul left my body.
Sophia looked up.
“What is that?”
Lily opened it.
Sophia stared.
I closed my eyes.
Enzo would never let me forget this.
Lily whispered:
“Pretty.”
Sophia looked at me.
“Dominic.”
“I had a plan.”
“You locked it in a drawer.”
“Yes.”
“Impressive plan.”
“I was developing details.”
She smiled.
Lily held out the ring.
“You give Mommy?”
I crouched.
“That was the idea.”
“When?”
“Apparently now.”
Sophia laughed.
I took the box.
Then stopped.
No dramatic restaurant.
No giant staircase.
No orchestra.
A kitchen.
Yellow couch visible through the doorway.
Lily wearing dinosaur pajamas.
Perfect.
I looked at Sophia.
“The first time we loved each other, everybody else got a vote.”
Her expression changed.
“My father.”
“My mother.”
“Your fear.”
“My arrogance.”
I opened the box.
“This time nobody gets a vote except you.”
Tears appeared immediately.
“Sophia Carter, I don't want to protect you by controlling where you stand.”
I took a breath.
“I want to stand beside you wherever you choose to go.”
Lily whispered loudly:
“Say yes.”
Sophia laughed through tears.
I continued.
“I love you. I love Lily. I love the loud, ordinary life we somehow built after everything.”
My throat tightened.
“Will you marry me?”
Sophia looked toward Lily.
Then at me.
“No.”
My heart stopped.
Lily gasped.
Sophia smiled.
“Not yet.”
I stared.
“That was cruel.”
“I need one question answered.”
“Anything.”
“Why do you want marriage?”
I frowned.
“I just gave a speech.”
“Answer simply.”
Because she knew me.
I thought.
“Because I want to be your husband.”
“Not because Lily needs a father?”
“She already has one.”
Lily smiled.
“Not because Victoria wants family legitimacy?”
“My mother has lost voting privileges.”
“Not because Moretti men marry eventually?”
“I've spent two years dismantling Moretti traditions.”
“Then ask me again.”
I almost laughed from relief.
“Sophia Carter, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
Lily screamed so loudly the neighbors' dog started barking.
Sophia kissed me.
Lily shoved between us.
“Family hug!”
So we did.
Later that night, Sophia noticed I was quiet.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You’re thinking.”
“I’m wondering whether asking twice means I was rejected once.”
“Absolutely.”
“That will become your favorite story.”
“Yes.”
I sighed.
Then she touched my face.
“I needed to know the choice was mine.”
I understood.
Four years earlier, everyone had taken Sophia’s choices.
My father.
My mother.
Carlo.
Fear.
Money.
This time, she chose.
That made the yes matter.
Two weeks later, Victoria came for dinner.
Sophia showed her the ring.
My mother cried.
Then asked cautiously:
“May I help with the wedding?”
Sophia narrowed her eyes.
“How much help?”
“Some.”
“No guest-list decisions.”
“Fine.”
“No venue control.”
Victoria looked pained.
“Fine.”
“No calling florists behind my back.”
“That's extreme.”
“Victoria.”
“Fine.”
Lily whispered to me:
“Grandma bossy.”
“I heard that,” Victoria said.
Apparently the Moretti women heard everything.
Our wedding date was set for June.
Small.
Family.
Friends.
No alliances.
No reporters.
No business agreements.
For perhaps the first time in the history of my family, a Moretti marriage would accomplish absolutely nothing financially.
I considered that an achievement.
Then, three nights before Christmas, Lily came into my bedroom carrying the photograph from the staircase.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Can we take new one?”
“Why?”
She pointed at the old photograph.
“You not in this.”
My throat tightened.
Sophia looked at me.
“Christmas morning.”
Lily nodded.
“Whole family.”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
May you like
Because sometimes healing wasn't replacing the photograph of the years you missed.
It was placing another one beside it.
