Chapter 9 - LITTLE GHOST
Enzo called me “little ghost” less over time.
One night I asked why he used it at all.
“Because the first months I knew you, you moved like you were trying not to occupy space.”
That hurt.
“Was I?”
“Yes.”
At restaurants, I apologized when chairs bumped me.
At his penthouse, I asked permission to drink water.
When security opened doors, I said sorry.
Julian had trained me into invisibility.
Not with one dramatic beating.
Though there had been those.
Mostly through erosion.
Why are you so loud?
Why are you dressed like that?
Who are you texting?
Why do you need school?
Why do you need friends?
Why do you make everything difficult?
Eventually the safest version of me became smaller.
Enzo noticed because he had the opposite problem.
He entered rooms expecting them to move.
We were both learning.
I learned to take space.
He learned not to fill all of it.
Two years into dating, he proposed.
Not at a gala.
Not on a yacht.
In my kitchen.
He was chopping onions terribly.
Leo was doing homework at the table.
Enzo set down the knife.
“Hannah.”
“What?”
“I have a question.”
Leo immediately covered his ears.
“I’M NOT LISTENING.”
He listened.
Enzo held no ring yet.
“I want to marry you.”
My heart stopped.
“But I need to know something first.”
“What?”
“If the answer is no, what happens?”
He looked confused.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“I love you tomorrow.”
There.
I smiled.
“Yes.”
Leo jumped up.
“I KNEW IT.”
“You were listening.”
“Obviously.”
Enzo later gave me a ring.
I chose it.
Small.
Simple.
No Valenti crest.
I kept my surname professionally.
He did not care.
We signed a prenup.
Detailed.
Independent counsel.
Separate assets.
No control over professional licenses.
No clauses connecting marriage to housing.
No funny business.
Amelia looked proud.
Romance, apparently, comes in many forms.
We married six months later.
Small ceremony.
Leo stood beside Enzo.
Marco cried and denied it.
Dr. Rossi attended.
So did Tessa.
At the reception, someone from the restaurant industry asked how we met.
Enzo said:
“She ruined my suit.”
I looked at him.
“With blood.”
“Expensive blood.”
“You’re terrible.”
He smiled.
No one told the full story.
May you like
We did not need to.
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