Chapter 10 - Dawn Over Port Ash
The wedding was small, quiet, and entirely secure.
It took place in the private chapel of the estate on a crisp January morning. Sophie acted as the flower girl, scattering white rose petals down the aisle in a dress that looked suspiciously like a princess costume. Mrs. Geller cried into a lace handkerchief in the front row, and half a dozen capos sat in the back in sharp black suits, looking entirely out of place and deeply touched.
I wore a dress of simple ivory silk—no designer labels, no pretense, just something that felt like me.
When Dominic slid the gold-and-diamond band onto my finger beside the heavy black signet of the Vale family, I knew my old life on Second Street was gone for good.
The waitress with twelve dollars and forty cents in tips was a ghost.
In her place stood the woman who had stopped a war with a four-year-old child and a handful of courage.
That evening, standing on the balcony of the master suite as the sun rose over the frozen waters of the Hudson River, Dominic wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder.
“Penny for your thoughts, la signora?” he murmured against my ear.
I looked down at the two rings shining on my left hand—the black diamond of power, and the golden band of love.
May you like
“I was just thinking,” I smiled, leaning back into his warmth, “that the coffee at Hawthorne Diner really was terrible.”
Dominic laughed—a deep, rich sound that echoed out across the water—and pulled me closer as the dawn broke over Port Ash, illuminating a world that would never be the same again.
