Part of me was afraid to believe it was true. Part of me was afraid to guess, to hope…

But hearing her admit it out loud, hearing her put truth to my suspicions, makes emotion swell in my chest. I step forward, cupping her face. I need to hear it again.

“You’re pregnant,” I say. “With my baby.”

For a moment, she looks as if she might still try to deny it, still try to run away. But I have no intention of letting her go, not now.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity of waiting, she gives the slightest of nods.

“Elle, I… I…” I can’t put into words what I’m feeling right now. When Andrew told me Karina was allegedly pregnant with my child, I felt only dread and shock. As if the world were closing in on me. Now… Now I feel such joy I can hardly breathe. I feel as if the world around me is bright and shining with possibility.

“This doesn’t change anything, Leo,” Elle says.

“What do you mean? This changes everything.”

She pulls out of my grip, shaking her head. “It doesn’t change what happened between us. It doesn’t change the fact that you spent the last few months with another woman—”

“If I’d known, I would have dropped everything to come to you,” I say. “You have to believe me. If I’d known…” I step back and jerk a hand through my hair. “Fuck, Elle, do you know how I made it through the past few months? By thinking of you. By telling myself that I was being the man you’d always wanted me to be. The man you deserved.” I catch her gaze with mine. “And still it was torture. But sometimes at night, as I lay awake in my empty bed, I’d allow myself to think about how it could have been different. To imagine what things might have been like if it had been you instead of Karina. If it had been your baby—our baby—and not hers. And I felt… God, Elle, for the first time in my life I found myself aching for that sort of connection with someone. With you.”

She takes a step back. “It’s too late. We’ve both made our decisions, and I—”

“And my decision is to stay by your side. I swear, Elle, nothing will come between us now. I have no intention of letting you go through this alone.”

“I’ve already told you that I don’t want or need anything from you. I can take care of this child by myself—”

“I don’t want you to take care of it by yourself. I want to be there.” I close the distance between us again. “This is my child, too. I want to be there with you every step of the way. I want to go with you to all of your doctor’s visits. Be there holding your hand when he or she is born. I want to be there for our child. And for you. Good God, I haven’t even known about it for an hour and already I… I didn’t know I could want something this much.” I take her hand in mine. “Please, Elle. Please let me be there for you.”

She closes her eyes. “This is already way too complicated…”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

“But it is. With everything that’s happened between us and all this scandal around you and Karina—”

“I don’t care about any of that. I love you, Elle. I want to be with you.”

“And what happens when the next scandal hits? Or when you once again decide that your conscience lies somewhere else—”

“My conscience lies nowhere but with you,” I say. “In fact…” I lower myself to a knee in front of her.

Elle’s eyes go wide, and she tries to tug her hand out of mine. “What are you doing? Leo…”

I reach my free hand into my pocket and pull out the thing I’ve been keeping there.

“Do you know what this is?” I ask, lifting it so she can see. “It’s my grandmother’s ring.”

She’s shaking her head, trying to pull her fingers free from mine. “Leo, please…”

“No. I need you to hear this.” I look up into her eyes. “I love you, Elle. I believe I have from the very beginning, though I certainly didn’t recognize it at the time. From the moment we met, you inspired me to be something better. I’d been living my life in a daze, flitting from one distraction to the next, but when I met you it was as if everything came into focus. As if I was finally where I was supposed to be, finally seeing and feeling and experiencing my life for the first time.”

I pause, but she doesn’t say a word. She just stares at me.

“My life has changed so much so quickly,” I continue. “Back then, my greatest fear was boredom. Or lack of freedom. Now? I realize I have greater things to fear. Greater things to lose. For the first time in my life, I feel…alive. I know it sounds trite and cliché, but for the first time I truly care about things—about life, about the world around me, about someone and something outside of myself. You did that, Elle. You showed me how beautiful these things can be. When you’re with me, the world holds a light it never did before. I never want that to go away. And now that we’re having a baby together… Elle, I can’t imagine living another day of my life without you.” I tighten my grip on her fingers. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

She continues to stare at me, and I can see the telltale glimmer of tears in her eyes. She doesn’t say a word for the longest moment, and I can scarcely breathe.

“Elle?” I say finally.

She closes her eyes again, as if trying to hide from my question. “Leo, you don’t have to do this.”

I frown, my chest tightening. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to do this just because I’m pregnant. If you want to take responsibility for the baby, then fine, I won’t force you to stay away, but—”

“You think this is just because of the baby?” I climb to my feet.

Her eyes open. “It’s pretty convenient timing if it isn’t.”

“I won’t lie,” I say. “The child is certainly part of it. But only in regards to the actual timing. I wasn’t actually planning to do it here, like this. If I’d have had my way, I would have taken you down to the Elizabetta Gardens and—”

“Don’t lie to me. You didn’t even know I was going to be here tonight. You thought I might have already met someone else back in the U.S.”

I drop my gaze down to the ring in my hand. It’s a beautiful thing—a white gold band with a sapphire so dark it’s nearly black.

“Do you know how long I’ve had this ring?” I say. “I got it from my mother when you were here before. I knew even then that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.” I twist the ring in my fingers, watching it reflect the light from the nearby streetlamp. “I took it with me when I went to talk to Karina. Not for her—even if it had been my child, I never could have given her the ring I meant for you—but to remind myself of why I was doing what I was doing. Of what I could have had. What we could have had, if the universe had been a little kinder to us.”

“It’s not the universe’s fault,” she murmurs. “You chose—”

“And now I choose you. I choose to never let anyone or anything ever come between us ever again. I choose to devote the rest of my life to loving you and supporting you and giving you the happiness that you deserve. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, Elle, but none would be greater than letting you walk away from me now.” I take her hand again and hold it tight. “Please, Elle, just answer me—will you be my wife?”