Ermanno's POV
My heart clenched painfully and my stomach felt sick as Ansley cried in my arms.
"Ansley?" I asked. "Fiore, tell me what is wrong." I didn't like seeing her that way.
"I don't know how I can raise her, Ermanno. I have no insurance, I won't be able to pay the hospital bills for giving birth. I can't afford daycare, so I won't be able to work for Dorothy." Her voice was shaky as she spoke and a few more tears fell from my eyes, but I wiped them away with my thumbs.
"Shhh, Fiore. You will be fine." I tried my best to comfort her, but she was overwhelmed with anxiety.
"No, I won't be. The hospital bills alone will ruin me. And if something goes wrong and Violet or I need extra help..." Her expression was one of defeat and I hated to see it. She was strong and resilient, not weak. I wouldn't let her surrender to her thoughts.
"I will help you," I said. I would pay for everything, ensure she and Violet had the best medical care, and make sure Violet was taken care of so Ansley could work. I wouldn't abandon them.
"It's my problem, my responsibility, not yours." Her voice was thick with emotion.
"I know it's your responsibility. It's also your responsibility to provide for Violet to the best of your abilities. You won't be able to do that if you're drowning in debt."
She took a second to respond and I could practically feel the dark thoughts rolling in her mind.
"I won't let you pay for that."
"Marry me."
I blurted the words out almost without even considering them. The idea of marriage had entered my mind and I immediately spoke it aloud to her. I shocked myself even with the vigor with which I said it.
But I meant it.
"What?"
"Marry me, Ansley," I said again.
Her mouth fell open as she stared at me, seemingly shocked that I had asked that of her.
"If you won't let me pay to ensure that you and Violet are taken care of, marry me, and allow my insurance to pay for it."
That was why I would marry her, to provide for and support her and her daughter. I wouldn't allow either of them to suffer because of her circumstances. She was building a life for herself and her daughter and I wanted to support her in every way I could.
That was the only reason.
Not because my chest foolishly warmed at the thought of her becoming my wife, of having her at my side for the rest of time.
No, all thoughts of marriage founded in love had been obliterated along with Jess.
She rolled words over in her mouth and had a few false starts before shaking her head. "I'm not going to marry you, Ermanno."
"Why not? Give me a reason?" Marriage to me would solve all of her problems. I understood her desire and her need to be independent after having been trapped in her abusive marriage, but I could provide for her. I wanted to provide for her. If she would let me.
"You- I- because- Ermanno. My life isn't your problem. I'm not going to burden you with marriage."
"I wouldn't have asked if I thought you and Violet were a burden to me."
She shook her head again. "No, besides, even if I wanted to, I'm married to another man. I cannot marry you."
I had forgotten that she was still legally married. Our time together had made me forget. Shit.
"Divorce him."
My eyes widened when I felt pressure against my hand, a pressure that came from Ansley's womb. Violet was making her presence known.
I looked up in awe at her mother.
"She kicked!" Ansley exclaimed, her eyes and smile bright and happy. She pressed her hands beside mine on her baby bump. I felt another small movement from one of her limbs and I was overcome with a sense of love and protectiveness that I'd never experienced before.
"That's the first time I've felt her," she said, her beautiful smile beaming at me.
"That was the first time? And I felt it too?" I got to feel her first kick? Pride warmed my chest.
If baby Violet already had such a chokehold on me from her small movements inside her mother's womb, I wouldn't be able to stand by as she and her mother struggled.
Ansley's POV
I moved my hands off my stomach to cup his cheeks and gazed into his eyes. "I can't. He will never divorce me, Ermanno. He won't ever give up his claim to me. And I can't bear to see him. I've made it this far without him finding me, I can't go back."
"Is divorcing him the only thing barring you from marrying me? If you could divorce him, would you marry me?"
I thought over his words. His offer was honorable, but simply unrealistic on account of many reasons. The main block was the fact I was still legally wed to an abusive man with a power complex who would never relent. The moment he saw me, he would take me and never let me go again.
I shivered at the thought. I was sure that he would torture me daily. Rape me. Take my child from me and hurt her. And then kill me.
"Yes, I would, but I can't."
A small sly smile fell on his lips and my heart skipped a beat. What was he thinking about?
"We can file your's and his divorce papers without him ever knowing."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I have the ability to file his divorce papers, to impersonate him without him knowing."
I was still confused. I wasn't sure of the law as I had no legal experience, but impersonating another person was definitely illegal. How would he even get the necessary information to file on Michael's behalf?
He would have to know Michael's information to prove he was Michael.
Well, he was savvy enough to get my information, but he hadn't impersonated me.
"Ermanno, how are you getting this information? Are you like a hacker or something?"
"Something," he answered.
I sat up straighter and looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"I am on good terms with a group of people who can breach weaknesses in cyber security."
"That's illegal," I pointed out, sounding naive and childish, but it was true. What if he was found out and arrested?
"It is. But the information we gain is used to punish bad people. We don't scam or hack the information of innocent people."
"So you're like... cyber vigilantes?" That was comforting that he only used the formation gained against bad people. Innocent people who were none the wiser that their information was being exploited didn't deserve to be blackmailed.
"You could say that," he said. His finger brushed a piece of hair behind my ear and my face tingled where his skin touched.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" I asked, feeling a little hurt that he'd never mentioned it. He could've told me when he found out my real identity.
"I didn't want to scare you with that information, but since I'm proposing marriage, I assumed you'd figure it out sooner or later."
I smiled at his words and slid off his lap to cuddle his side. I rested my head against his chest. He was so warm, so comforting, so strong.
"You said you would marry me if I successfully file your divorce," he said.
I rolled my eyes. "That was before I realized you were an online criminal. You tricked me."
"I didn't trick you. I told you I could do it. You're the one who didn't put your faith in me."
"Even if you can pull this off, I can't marry you, Ermanno. You're offering marriage out of pity and sympathy, and while I am so grateful that you're willing to do this for me, I won't trap you in a marriage of my convenience."
No matter how every time I blinked I saw our joined hands with matching wedding rings on our fingers. Or how the thought of taking his last name made my heart beat a little faster. Or how the thought of being in his bed every night made my core clench with delicious pressure.
In an instant, my back was against the couch and his large body was on top of me. The hard ridge of him was settled on my thigh. He ground his hips into my thigh and his hardness hardened even more. Again, he rocked his hips against me and I wasn't ashamed to admit that liquid pleasure pooled between my legs at his movements.
"Does this feel like I'm offering marriage out of pity?"
****
"Mom," I called, scared by the grunts I heard coming from behind the closed door.
More grunts. More of my mom calling out.
"Mom?" I called again even louder.
Reaching out, I turned the knob to her bedroom door. The lock had broken a few years ago.
I pushed the door open and my eyes took a second to adjust to the darkness.
On the bed, two figures were moving. I saw a man lying on top of my mother who was kicking and hitting him, but he wouldn't stop. I knew what was happening. I was only 13, but I knew what was happening.
My mom looked at me from over the man's shoulder and shook her head, but I was already in action. Within seconds, I had my arms locked around his neck in a chokehold and pulled his body off of my mother's.
It was a struggle, he was bigger than me, but I'd been training for years. He fell to the floor and my mother scrambled off the bed with a sheet covering herself.
The man stood up from the ground and then I realized just how much taller than me he was. But I wasn't afraid. I would defend my mother, even if it killed me.
He lunged for me, but I side-stepped him and swooped my leg out in front of his, making him stumble against the wall. My opponent was big, but slow and lazy, uncalculated.
My father always told me that while the size of your opponent was a factor to consider, their technical ability would be their downfall.
At first, I had remained standing and warded him off, throwing a few hits where I could, but mainly just avoiding his attacks altogether to wear him out. But then I tripped over a blanket on the floor.
As soon as I landed on my back, he was on top of me, wailing hits against me. My mother was screaming in the background.
I lifted my arms to cover my face, realizing there was nothing I could do at that moment. My technical ability was better than his, but his punches packed much more weight than mine.
Then I remembered the gun in the drawer right beside my head. I took my hands away from my face, making my head vulnerable to his fists. My fingers grazed the cool metal. My mother's rapist was ignorant of my movements as he hit my face.
I slid the safety to the side and pressed the metal to his chest before pulling the trigger without a second thought. His body went lump, all but crushing me. My mother's screams only got louder.
"Ermanno!" She yelled, the pitch of her voice splitting my ears.
When I crawled out from under his body, I stood up on shaky legs. Blood poured from my nose, my lip stung, and there was pain in my jaw.
She grabbed my arm and pulled me across the house to the front door.
"Get out, get out, get out!" She screamed.
"What?" I had saved her from him, I thought she would have been happy. I hadn't intended to kill him, I just wanted him to get off of her, but he would have killed me if he had the chance.
"You killed him! Get out!"
She shoved me out of the house and slammed the door in my face.
I turned away from the house and ran down the road until I reached Arsenio's house. I had run six miles covered in a mix of mine and another person's blood by the time I got there.
I ran up the front steps of the house to knock on the door. I was hoping Arsenio or his mom, Carlotta, answered, I didn't like his dad. Before I could raise my hand to knock, I saw something move in my peripheral. Arsenio was there, he was bruised and bloodied. I knew his father must've done something to him.
Neither of us said a word as we walked to the side of his house and sprayed down with the hose until all the blood was off of us.
"My dad's drunk. You can come in and sleep in my room," he said.
I told him later what had happened as I lay on his floor. He told me I was brave.
He told me what had happened to him. His father was angry that he hadn't spent enough time training that day, so he was punished for it. He fought back against his father some, but he was scared that if he did much more, his father would hurt his mother for his disobedience. He was worried that if he killed his father in retaliation, the mafia family would punish him. I told him he was brave.
"Shit," I whispered in the darkness of my room as I stretched my muscles. My mother liked to haunt me sometimes. More recently than she had ever before. She was still alive but somehow managed to whisper to me in my sleep.
I made my way downstairs and got a glass of water. My throat was dry so I downed the glass in its entirety. As I was filling it up again, my security notification went off. Someone was here.
I looked down at my phone and saw that Ansley's car was pulling up my driveway, at 2:30 in the morning. What was she doing?
I walked outside and waited for her to park her car. When she stepped out, I saw she was dressed like she was ready for bed. Had she woken up to come here?
I met her halfway up the walkway to my front door. "What are you doing here?"
"Yes," she said as she stopped in front of me.
"Yes, what?" I wasn't sure what point she was trying to make.
"You asked me to marry you. I'm saying yes."
My eyes widened. Earlier in the day she had left my question unanswered. She told me she needed to think about my proposal, but I didn't think she would have achieved her answer at 2:30 in the morning.
"You came here, at 2:30, to tell me this?"
She wriggled her hands together, something I noticed she did a lot when she was nervous or stressed.
"I felt like I left things very ambiguous and weird. I didn't mean to offend you, it was just a lot to think about."
I pulled her smaller body to my chest and just then realized the relief I felt now that she had accepted. I wasn't sure why I was so concerned that she would say no, her denying me would have no impact on my life, but I wanted her to say yes.
"You didn't offend me. You just didn't need to crawl out of bed this early to come to tell me," I said. I felt her smile against my chest and one worked its way onto my mouth too. Her smiles were contagious.
"I wanted to."
She hugged her arms around me tighter and it felt so... comfortable. So right.
She pulled away far too quickly. "Okay, that was all I wanted to say, so I'll let you get back to bed. I didn't mean to wake you up, I'm sorry."
"You didn't wake me up. I was up already. Don't go, Ansley."
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
"I want you to stay."
"I don't want to impose-"
"You're my girlfriend... my fiance. You aren't imposing. I want you to stay here tonight."
"In your bed?" She asked, her cheeks turning red. I could see it even in the darkness.
"If you want to." Of course, I wanted her to sleep in my bed. Quite literally nothing could make me happier, but I wouldn't force her to. I knew she needed to take time to get used to things.
"Okay," she said, another smile on her lips.