Page 20 of Till Death Do Us Part

“I’d guess that she just told him she’s expecting a baby.”

Aléjandro’s eyebrows shot upward. “They didn’t waste time.”

“Anything to cement the alliance.”

His deep voice lowered an octave. “Without the alliance, I never would have seen your beauty at the pool or felt your flames after the wedding. For that, I’m thankful. Our future is about more than the alliance.”

Ourfuture.

My stomach twisted.

“Voy a ser un tío.”Emiliano announced, proclaiming he was about to be an uncle and saving me from thinking about the future.

“Dinner will be in a half hour,” Mom said to everyone. “Why don’t we go back to the living room and let Aléjandro and Mia spend some time together?”

When Rocco proposed, both our fathers were present. It was deemed inappropriate for the two of us to be unsupervised. Ten years and the loss of my virginity created different guidelines as the room around us emptied, Dario closed the French doors, and we were left alone.

Dario wouldn’t help me.

Catalina wouldn’t help me.

That left one person.

As Aléjandro pulled a velvet box from his pocket, I blurted out the truth. “I don’t want to marry you.”

He took a step back, his grin still in place as he tilted his head. “I wasn’t expecting you to say the quiet part out loud.”

“Shouldn’t we be honest with one another?”

“Sí.”

I let out a breath. “It’s nothing against you.”

Aléjandro scoffed. “That’s code for it is.”

I shook my head. He was right. I didn’t want to marry him. I also didn’t want to marry—period. “It’s that I’ve been married since I was eighteen.”

“To a prick.”

My neck straightened. “You can’t say that.”

“Then you should. I only had the displeasure of meeting him a few times. I doubt more interaction would have changed my mind. The rat was a prick.”

I nodded. “You’re right. Can you see now why I don’t want to be married again?”

“Yet, your brother?—”

“My brother and your father want to build on the alliance. You didn’t want to marry me. You were at the wedding with Jasmine.”

“Had I known killing your husband was an option, I would have done that in order to take you to the wedding.”

I couldn’t come up with a response.

Aléjandro reached for my hand. “Mia, I’m not Moretti. The capo will marry you to someone. I want that someone to be me.”

My speechlessness continued as Aléjandro fell to one knee and opened the velvet box, revealing a solitaire diamond ring that was easily twice the size of the engagement ring upstairs.

His large brown eyes stared up at me. “I will make you a promise. I promise if you say yes, you won’t regret being my wife.”

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