The gunshot split through the air.
Too loud, too sharp, splitting through the cold air like the world itself had cracked open. The recoil jolted through my arm, but the sensation barely registered, drowned out by the ringing in my ears. The sky and snow bleeding together in my vision.
Then I saw him.
The way he staggered back, one hand clutching at his chest as if something deep inside him had torn loose. The sight punched the air out of my lungs. What have I done?
A fierce nauseating ache bloomed behind my eyes. My head throbbing, as understanding crept in far too slowly. No, no, no.
My fingers went numb. The gun slipping from my grasp, disappearing into the snow as though it never existed. I tried to move back, away from him, but my body refused to obey. The world only tilted, swayed and suddenly, it felt like I was standing on the edge of something far more dangerous than the cliff behind us.
My knees buckled. The pain in my head growing unbearable as the ground rushed toward me, white and endless but I never reached it. I could feel strong arms catching me at the last second, pulling me hard against a solid chest.
Warm and alive.
His breath came harsh and uneven against my hair. His grip tightening like he was afraid that I would slip through his fingers, if he loosened it even for a moment.
"Lara—"
His voice broke around the name, raw and unguarded, as if it had been torn out of him rather than spoken.
Lara?
The sound of it struck something deep inside my chest. A kind of recognition, like I've heard the name somewhere. A sharp, irrational ache flared behind my eyes, like a door rattling on its hinges, just begging to be opened.
"Who..." I tried to ask, but the word unraveled before it could leave my mouth.
I couldn't see him properly anymore. Only fragments, as if my vision had shattered into pieces. His coat dusted with snow. The hard line of his jaw clenched tight, fear written there so plainly it stole my breath. His arm around my back, while the other brushed my cheek, as if doing so was the only thing keeping him from falling apart.
Something flickered then. Too fast, too fragile. A flash of warmth. A room filled with light. The echo of laughter that felt like mine but wasn't. Or was it?
The pounding in my head deepened, slower now, heavier, each beat dragging me further under. The cold seeped away. The wind disappeared. All that remained was the feel of his arms around me, steady and desperate, holding me together as the world began to slip out of focus.
The darkness closed in.
And just before everything went quiet, I had the strangest feeling that this wasn't the first time he had held me like this.
"Marry me," he said, so casually I almost thought I had imagined it.
"What?" I asked, laughing softly, confused.
The wind tangled itself through my hair as he pulled me closer. We were standing at the edge of a cliff, the city sprawled below us in a constellation of lights, the sea beyond it dark and endless. Stars burned overhead, bright and patient, as if they had been waiting for this moment.
A half-finished picnic lay forgotten in the grass beside us. Our wine, untouched. Food gone old.
"Marry me," he repeated, turning fully toward me now. He took my hands in his, grounding me, steady and sure.
My heart stuttered in my chest. My lips parted, words caught somewhere between shock and disbelief. "But we've only known each other for two weeks," I said. "That's...that's hardly—"
I trailed off, because the way he was looking at me made the rest feel unnecessary.
"I'm serious," he said quietly. "What have we got to lose?"
I opened my mouth, then closed it again.
What did I have to lose?
It had been months since I had vanished without a trace. I still didn't know if the Famiglia had truly believed it, since I had severed every line of contact, but the silence had stretched on long enough to start feeling real. Permanent. I had already burned my old life to the ground.
So what was left to protect?
"Lara?" he murmured, stepping closer. His fingers brushed my neck, warm and familiar, while his other arm slid around my waist, drawing me closer to him as if the answer was already written between our bodies. "What do you think?"
I let out a soft breath, something between a laugh and a sigh, pretending to weigh the decision. "Well," I said lightly, "I haven't met your parents."
The corner of his mouth lifted, but his eyes stayed serious. Steady and certain, like he already knew that I belonged to him.
"That can be fixed," he said, leaning in to press a soft, unhurried kiss to my lips. One that lingered just long enough to steal the breath from my lungs. "You can meet my adoptive mother tomorrow. What else?"
I pulled back slightly, searching his face. "Where would we even stay?"
"We can stay at my place," he said easily. "Or yours." His thumb brushed over my knuckles, grounding and sure. "Or we give up both and find somewhere new. Something that's ours."
Something about the way he said it, ours, made my chest tighten.
The city lights stretched below us, endless and glittering. The wind carrying the salt of the sea and the promise of something reckless and beautiful. This man was offering me a future without asking me to explain my past. No questions. No conditions. Just...faith. And love.
I've...never felt this way before.
I swallowed, my heart pounding so loud I was sure he could hear it.
This is crazy. But it had never felt more right.
"You're not scared at all, are you?" I whispered.
He smiled then, slow and devastating. "I've never been more certain of anything."
The truth settled into me quietly, like a decision I had already made the moment I met him. I had been running from death. From everything I've ever known, everything that had tried to cage me. But this...this decision felt like...freedom. Like I'm choosing my own destiny, for the first time.
I squeezed his hands, grounding myself in the warmth of him. "Okay," I said softly.
He will never have to know about my past.
His breath hitched. "Okay?"
I will make sure of it.
"Yes," I whispered, smiling through the sudden sting behind my eyes. "I'll marry you, Alex."
For a moment, he just stared at me like the world had tilted on its axis.
Then he laughed under his breath, pressing his forehead to mine, holding me like I might disappear if he didn't. "Truly?"
"Yes," I breathed. "Yes, truly."
Beneath the stars, with the sea watching and the city humming below, I smiled from ear to ear as Alex kissed me like it was a vow.