Page 85 of Legacy of Deception

This was a form of torture. I just knew it was. A sick one, but one nevertheless.

Brooklyn slowly came into my line of sight, and I could have sworn angels were singing. She looked tired, circles under her eyes, her feet clad in slippers, and her hair mussed from the bed. She was even still wearing her pajamas. Man, why hadn’t she just woken me up so we could have talked about this? Had she honestly thought this was a better idea?

That wasn’t to say I wasn’t grateful that she had a place to go, that she had a best friend like my sister to run to in a time like this, when I apparently grated on her last nerve or made her second-guess us. Truthfully, I was grateful. Extremely so. I wanted Brooklyn to have a good support system, especially with our daughter on the way. It was important. She should feel like she had other people to talk to besides me. Like I had my brothers, mostly Lorenzo and Dom, but still.

Nodding her approval, she gently placed a hand on my sister’s arm, swiveling her gaze inside to give Capri the boot. Not exactly how I would have done it, but then again, that was probably because Brooklyn was far better a person than I was. “It’s okay, Capri. Really, you can go,” she assured her.

Snubbing me, she only looked to Brooklyn. “Tell me if you want me to get rid of him.”

With that, she retreated back inside, but before she was completely out of earshot, I said, “Brooklyn has a mouth on her, and she definitely knows how to use it. So, I’m sure she will.” Focusing my attention back on the one person who deserved it, I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated. “Kiki, please, I only found out about what my father was doing through Massimo, and that was only because I went to Elio to try for a vote of no confidence with the board. That was all before I decided I didn’t care about being CEO because I didn’t want to get out of this marriage. This relationship. We said we would try, and we did.” If she didn’t know the timeline, she may as well have known nothing. This was a lot more nuanced than some contract and arranged marriage deal our fathers had made with one another.

She shook her head, her lips thin lines. “I thought we did more than try. I thought we succeeded.”

The way she said that had my gut twisting. “We did.” I didn’t want her to doubt that. After I had found out about her near brush with Santo and I had come back here as quickly as I could, everything changed. I realized I had been going about this all wrong. We had been. “I only didn’t tell you because, well…because I’m an idiot.” There was really no other way to put it. I should have put less stock in perfecting the details of what I was going to say, and how I was going to say it, and when I was going to tell her. That was my fault, and if it meant the end of us, I would regret it for all eternity.

Fussing with the bottom of the soft honey-blonde hair that was framing her face, draped down her chest, covering her cleavage, she said, “You’re not an idiot.”

I appreciated what she was doing, but she was giving me far more credit than I deserved. “No, I am. I got so caught up in the loyalty I have to my family that I tried to figure out a way to not break that while also not breaking my loyalty to you.” I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Obviously, I failed.” Epically.

She narrowed her gaze, taking a step closer to me and placing a hand on my cheek. When she looked at me like this, it was like she could see right through my skin straight to my bone, and it sent tingles down my spine. “I have to come first. That’s the only way this is going to work.”

“I know.” I curled a fist at my side for not acknowledging that before. “I know that now. You and this baby, you’re my family first.” Santo and everyone else would just have to accept that. And if Santo didn’t like that, then he should remember he had set all of this in motion in the first place. At one time I would’ve cursed him out over it, but now…now, dare I say, I felt like I needed to thank him. Not that I would be doing that.

“Just take me home,” she whispered, her voice cracking slightly as her lips curled upward in the most delightful smile.

“But—”

“Don’t argue with me. I’m pregnant, and I’m tired of standing on my feet. Just take me home because I forgive you. I understand your stupid logic and where you were coming from. I appreciate it, all of it.”

Heat soared through my body, and I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I will take you home, but first, there’s something I need to do.” It couldn’t wait. I didn’t want it to wait. “You would probably argue—”

I dropped down on bended knee.

“—that I should have done this a while ago, but better late than never, right?” I looked up at Brooklyn expectantly, her hand covering her mouth as she squealed.

When she withdrew her hand, the Amazon River may have had some competition with how wide Brooklyn smiled. “Still no ring?” She wiggled her naked finger at me. “It doesn’t matter. Yes, yes, always. Always yes.”

“You didn’t even let me ask my question.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Will you be my date for the next event that comes up?” Gasping, she swatted my bicep, and my eyes went there as I laughed. “Serves you right for not letting me finish.”

Standing there, with one hand on her belly and one hand on her back, and tears in her eyes, she heard me out. “Will you marry me?”

“Of course I will.”

I got up and our lips met in the gentlest of kisses. There was no urgency when we had the rest of our lives to be together.

When we broke apart, she smacked her lips. “So, this is the second time we’ve gotten engaged, and you still don’t have a ring for me. What’s your problem?”

A thunderous laugh rolled out of me. “There’s a good reason for that,” I said, tugging her to me so we were flush against one another. “I want us to pick your ring together. Then when we do, it can be the first piece you place in your new walk-in jewelry vault I have being installed in our brownstone as we speak.”

Her eyes flared. “Did you just say jewelry vault?”

I nodded.

“You sure do know the way to my heart, Marco Deluca.”