Where I liked to be.
Around eight o’clock in the evening, dinner was finally served.
Daisy told me little things about her past. I saw her eyes light up when she spoke to me about her father. Paul Parker, it seemed, had been a phenomenal father, and it saddened me that I’d never get to meet him. I would have thanked him for shaping the destiny of my happiness.
We were finishing dessert when I glanced at my watch; it was 9:30 p.m.
“Give me your hand,” I asked, surprising her. She set her spoon down on the plate, where a bit of herwhiskey semifreddostill remained, and complied with my request. “The other one,” I clarified, placing the ring box back on the table. She held out her left hand. “It’s yours,” I declared, sliding the huge peridot onto her ring finger, swallowing hard as I realized it fit her perfectly.
However, that wasn’t a marriage proposal.
Not yet.
I knew we had a long way to go before we could even think about something like that, but there was no doubt that the ring had been waiting for her all those years.
“I-I can’t accept it! This must be worth a fortune and—”
“My Mamusia would have wanted you to have it,I’m sure.” She fell silent and drew her arm back, staring at the stone on her finger. “Your eyes are that exact color, did you know?”
She smiled shyly. “I hadn’t realized it, but… peridot is my birthstone.”
“Your birthstone?” I repeated, my eyebrows raised high.
She shook her head, a broad smile on her face. “My birthday is this month. Peridot is the stone for August.”
My heart began racing again, and the question slipped out hesitantly, “On what day?”
“The nineteenth.”
On the nineteenth of August, two thousand thirteen, I asked Valentina to marry me.
On the nineteenth of August, two thousand fourteen, we got married.
And on the nineteenth of August, two thousand fifteen, she killed my famiglia.
For ten years, that had been a day I cursed. It was the day I sealed the fate of the ones I loved so much, the day of my worst mistake, and a reminder of what I had lost.
I forced myself to smile.
“I promise to celebrate it until the end of my days.” I swore, but the truth was that I wasn’t saying it to her, but to myself. I took a deep breath and pushed away any trace of the past. The present was too good to let old pains take over the moment. “What do you want to do on that day?”
She laughed, and the peridot sparkled in her hand, almost as if it were an extension of her body. “I’d like to visit my Aunt Lizzie… I know! I know! No way!”
“I’ll buy the plane tickets.”
Daisy grew serious, perhaps too much so. She sat up straight in her seat, and her next words were spoken in a low tone. “Don’t play with me like that…”
I leaned over the table, stealing those hands for myself once more. “I promised I’d prove you’re no collateral damage, and I’m going to keep it.” I purred, bringing her hands to my lips, kissing them slowly. “You’re not my prisoner, Daisy Parker, and I’m not entirely sure you ever were.”
Chapter 48
Daisy Peonia Mary Parker
August, 2025
Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy
It was close to 11:30 p.m. when we left the restaurant. My legs were shaking, and it wasn’t because of the wine.
