Chapter 10 - The Ink and the Eternal Vow
Later that evening, long after the gala had ended and the cameras had stopped flashing, the Moretti estate was bathed in the quiet, silver light of a midnight moon.
Emma sat in the nursery rocker, softly humming a lullaby to little Lily, who was fast asleep in her white mahogany crib, breathing peacefully.
The door opened with a soft click, and Luca stepped inside. He had removed his tuxedo jacket, his white shirt open at the collar, looking tired but deeply content.
He walked over, resting his hands gently on the back of the rocking chair, looking down at the baby before shifting his gaze to Emma.
“The gala was a success,” Luca murmured. “Thorne’s stocks dropped four points before midnight after the press saw you on my arm. He knows he’s finished.”
Emma stopped rocking, looking up at him with her large, luminous brown eyes.
“You didn't do all of this just to crush Thorne, did you?” she asked softly.
Luca smiled—a rare, breathtaking smile that reached his eyes, melting away every trace of the cold mafia-esque billionaire the city whispered about.
“No,” Luca said simply. He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a sleek fountain pen—the exact same pen he had used to sign the birth certificate weeks ago.
He knelt down beside her chair, resting one knee on the plush rug, taking her small hand in his.
“Emma,” Luca said, his voice steady, serious, and filled with a lifetime of devotion. “When I signed that paper in the hospital, it wasn't just a legal maneuver to protect you from Derek. It was a promise. But a promise written on a hospital clipboard isn't enough.”
He opened her palm, gently pressing the fountain pen into her fingers, before reaching into his other pocket and pulling out a small, velvet jeweler's box.
He flipped the lid open. Inside rested a magnificent, custom-cut emerald engagement ring, surrounded by a halo of brilliant diamonds—designed specifically for her, reflecting the exact shade of the dress she wore tonight.
“I don't just want to be your protector,” Luca whispered, looking up into her eyes with raw, unfiltered emotion. “I want to be your partner. Your home. Your forever.”
Emma stared at the ring, a tear of pure joy spilling over her lashes. She remembered the girl she used to be—broken, abandoned, standing on a rainy NYC sidewalk with no one to catch her. And she looked at the man kneeling before her now—the king of Manhattan who had laid his entire empire at her feet not out of obligation, but out of pure, unyielding love.
She gripped the fountain pen tightly in one hand, then reached out with the other to take the ring box.
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“No more contracts, Luca,” Emma whispered, her voice trembling with emotion as a radiant smile broke across her face. “Just us.”
Luca slid the ring onto her finger, sealing the vow with a deep, tender kiss that erased every shadow of the past under the bright, eternal sky of New York.
