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His mother told me one night that she was envious. “I always hoped for a man to see me and get hit with a thunderbolt.” She was braiding my hair. “I love my husband, but it’s clear that he doesn’t pay attention to me the same way Lorenzo does to you. I’m happy that my son is happy. I’m even more happy for you that you have a man willing to burn the world down for your love.”
I didn’t realize how uncommon our situation was until I met more of Lorenzo’s family—the ones related to him by blood, and the ones he called his Family. A thunderbolt doesn’t hit every Italian. It is a rare commodity; something to be treasured.
“I just wish I didn’t feel so out of place here,” I tell Lorenzo after a few moments. I look up at him and subconsciously start to bite my lip. “I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like I don’t belong.”
Lorenzo blocks us off from the rest of the party by putting himself between me and the guests. With his back to everyone, he only has eyes for me. “Havana, you belong more than any of them. You are the woman that I love. All of the men, women, and children here today could disappear off the face of the Earth tomorrow and I wouldn’t care as long as I had you.”
The weight of the world lifts from my shoulders. “Really?” I sound desperate; Ifeeldesperate.
“Really,” he reassures me. “You are the only thing in my life that makes sense anymore. I feel no less for you today than I did the first time I saw you. In fact, I feel even more. Because you’re everything to me, Havana. You are the sun, the moon, and all the stars. You are my galaxy.”
He speaks with such heart and emotion. He puts everything he has out there. And it stirs something inside me. “Thank you for everything,” I tell him truthfully. I don’t know if I’ve said it yet. In the months we’ve been together, I’ve been torn between running away and getting closer to him. I’ve been afraid of giving in to something I never quite understood. But today as I stand with him before his family, I know that I don’t have to be scared anymore.
Lorenzo Riva didn’t pick me out of a crowd and decide to take me on a whim. He didn’t claim me because I have a pretty face and the perfect body. Lorenzo saw me from across the room and couldn’t give me up. He saw me and loved me. He saw me and his entire life changed.
I should have known from the first time he asked me out that he wasn’t like all the other men. Where they threw fits when I said no, he smiled and said he’d try again later. He’s been committed since our first meeting. He’s loved me from afar for so long and I have to stop holding him at arm’s length.
“I love you, you know,” I tell him. “I know I’ve raged against you for turning my life upside down, but it’s nothing more than I did to you unintentionally. Thank you for everything,” I repeat. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.”
He tenderly bends over to press his lips to mine and I savor the taste of bourbon. “The rest of our lives starts now,” he whispers over the dull roar of voices swirling around us. “It’s you and me together, forever.”
A year ago, this isn’t how I pictured my life turning out. But sometimes fate has other plans. I’m ready to embrace fate. I’m ready to step into the life that was carefully crafted for me by destiny.
“Forever,” I repeat after him.
“Forever,” he says again.
We share a smile before turning back to the partygoers.
Ishouldbe here. Iknowthat I belong. That becomes my mantra. I was taken by a dangerous man, but it was all for my good. I am exactly where I’m supposed to be.
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