He Chose Another Heir Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 62
The next spring, when the magnolias at the old house were in bloom, I returned to Boston with my mother and Nora.
Salvatore did not hold a formal dinner.
There were no capos at the long table, no engagement contracts, no profit arrangements to be announced. Only four place settings and a pot of gardenias brought down from the windowsill.
Vincent was waiting at the door.
A few months had put significantly more gray at his temples.
“Maria.”
My mother didn’t walk over to him.
“Today, we’re just eating,” she said. “No family business.”
“Okay.”
He looked at me.
“Elena, welcome home.”
“I’m just visiting.”
“I know.”
At last, he had learned not to tack an order onto the end of every sentence.
Near the end of lunch, Salvatore pushed an old wooden box toward me.
It wasn’t a ring. It was a drawing Maria had made for me when I was little, after I broke my arm falling from the magnolia tree. The paper was yellowed, my name written crookedly in the corner.
“Your room has been kept just as it was,” he said.
“That’s not necessary.”
His fingers paused on the edge of the box.
I took the drawing and closed the lid.
“I’ll take this. Give the room to someone who needs it.”
Salvatore didn’t object.
Out in the yard, Nora was looking up at the magnolia blossoms. Milo stood a little way off, clutching a soccer ball, not daring to come closer.
Nora walked over to him.
“Know how to play?”
Milo nodded.
The ball rolled across the grass and hit the base of the magnolia tree. Two children who had nearly been defined by bloodlines and old debts ran after it, neither asking what family the other belonged to.
Luca stood outside the yard gate.
When he saw me, he just gave a distant nod.
I nodded back.
No pursuit. No pleading.
At last, we were both standing inside our own lives again.
Dante’s car was parked by the road. He hadn’t come in to rush me. He was just leaning against the car, checking the time.
I walked over.
“Been waiting long?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“Why didn’t you come in?”
“You said you were visiting. You didn’t say you were introducing me to your family.”
I opened the passenger door, then paused.
“Dante.”
“Yeah?”
“Have dinner with them tonight.”
His brow lifted.
“In what capacity?”
“My boyfriend.”
He smiled and closed the car door for me.
This time, I wasn’t borrowing his name to keep someone away.
This time, I was willing to introduce him to my family.