Chapter 14 - The Portrait We Chose Ourselves
Spring arrived slowly on Long Island. The investigation moved into court. Victor, Carlo, and Isabella faced charges supported by financial records, witness testimony, and the recovered footage. Antonio worked with his attorneys to separate the foundation from the businesses that had corrupted it.
He did something else, too. He resigned from the foundation's board and placed its future in the hands of independent directors. Elena's charity would no longer belong to the Bellucci name alone.
Mia returned to school. Some days were difficult. A boy asked about her scars. She came home angry and shut herself in her room. Later she told us she'd answered him herself: “I survived a fire. That's all you need to know.”
I told her she was allowed to be angry. Antonio told her she never owed anyone an explanation.
For her fourteenth birthday, Mia requested a small party in the garden. No photographers. No speeches. Just friends, strawberry cake, and the people she trusted.
At the end of the afternoon she surprised us with a camera on a tripod. “I want a picture,” she said.
Antonio stood on one side of her. I stood on the other. Mia took both our hands.
“Closer,” she instructed.
The shutter clicked. In the photograph she was laughing, her scars visible in the sunlight. Antonio looked at her rather than at the lens. I was looking at him.
A few days later he asked me to meet him in the garden after dinner. He carried no ring and made no grand announcement. He said he loved me, and that he understood love could not be another promise of protection he might fail to keep. It had to be a choice we made together.
“I love you too,” I said.
May you like
He smiled with a relief I had never seen on his face. Then he asked if I would stay—not as an employee, but as his partner.
I said yes.
