Her foot sank into the sand, and that’s when I descended to one knee, chuckling nervously at the way her eyes widened and that smile fell off her face.
I popped the little jewelry box open, and—
"Oh my..." Jade whispered, taking a step closer.
"Did you think we’d be here?” I asked, wanting to delay so I could stare at her longer.
Jade’s expression softened, and she shook her head. “No. I lost all hope.”
Her words pierced me right in the heart. Me too. There was a moment when I’d also lost all hope.
“But now I want to hear you say it. I want to hear you ask me.”
I would. I had a few questions, actually.
"Jade? Will you spend the rest of your life with me? Will you let me love you, caress you, support you, and provide for you? Do you want to have a family together? Will you commit to going on dates only with me from now on?" At this, she giggled, and her eyes sparkled in the candlelight again, filled with tears. "Will you be my wife, Jade? Will you marry me,Preziosa?"
That was it—she was crying, exactly how I’d imagined. I wasn’t sure why I was so set on making her cry, only that I wanted all her tears to come from happiness instead of pain.
As if drinking in this moment, my love stood before me and smiled through her tears. The silence was only broken by the soft lulling of the ocean waves beside us, and, oh fuck, I hopedIwasn't going to cry.
Jade's long brown hair fluttered with the light breeze, but then, unexpectedly, she fell to her knees in front of me, never even taking a glance at the ring.
I wasn't sure if God was real, but he had to be, right? To give me a woman like this? To give me her love?
"Yes,” she finally answered, her voice resolute. "Of course. Absolutely. I will definitely be your wife." Jade gazed into my eyes, each one of her words like medicine on my heart. "But…no morePreziosa, okay?” Her smile never faded, but a twinge of anxiety ran through me at those unforeseen words. "I won't have an Italian last name for much longer."
Oh, sweet baby Jesus, thank you. I nodded like a complete idiot, barely alive to clue in that I had to slide the ring on her finger.
With shaking fingers, I popped the ring out of the box and reached for her equally shaking and clammy hand.
God, we were both a fucking mess.
Reverently, I held her hand, noticing how bony her fingers were. As I suspected, the ring was too big. I had picked out the emerald cut design and ordered the ring before the nightmare, and now…Jade had lost so much weight. The ring waited, hidden away in a safe, in this house all this time.
"Oh wow.” Jade sniffled and admired the ring. “Looks like you're going to have to be an outstanding husband and cook for your wife. So she can return back to what she was…when you freed her."
Jade was a dream. A whole universe. She was real and pure. She was both a vibrant color and obsidian darkness. She was fire and ice, she was an angel and a demon, and she put me back together after I was crushed into nothing.
Just like that, I carried a quietly crying and smiling Jade back into our little beach house, determined to never let her out of my arms and sight.
53
Epilogue
Alex
Jade wore a light-blue bikini that was literally making me drool. Her long, flowing brown hair was tied into loose boxer braids, and she sat in the shade with the chubby baby, cooing and smiling.
"Da-da? Can you say dada? Or mama?"
"She can saystop,that's for sure. That's what two older brothers will do to you." Olga chuckled at her own words, nursing a cold lemonade. “Listen. Can you hear?" She paused and put her finger to her ear. "Exactly. Silence! I swear, little boys are so difficult to keep alive. They keep doing everything in their power to kill themselves."
The sun was relentless, but the cool ocean waves made up for it as the yacht sailed on. It was Thursday, ten days before Jade and I were to be married, and we all decided to go for a swim.
Roman and Isla joined us for the day, but Isla was three months pregnant with theirsecondbaby, and her nausea would kick in at random times, like after drinking a glass of lemonade at lunch.
She sat on Roman’s lap, quietly whispering something in his ear and pouting every once in a while. Roman's large hand rested on her stomach, and he listened with a smile on his face, his eyes closed. Damn, I wasn't sure who was more whipped, me or him.
