Chapter 3

  Ariella's POV

  “You do realize he’s going to propose tonight, right?”

  

  Sam, my work friend now turned best friend's voice crackled softly through my phone in a warm amused manner, like she was sharing a harmless little secret instead of dropping a bomb into my afternoon. 

  

  I leaned back against the cushioned lounge chair on the upper back of the cruise ship, letting the Mediterranean breeze brush against my face. 

  

  Below me, the sea stretched endlessly, deep blue and glittering under the late afternoon sun. 

  

  I was on my way to Italy. 

  

  After all four years, I had built my life from scratch and gotten my dream job, I surely deserved this holiday.

  

  My mind slowly drifted back to home… I missed my mom but knowing she now had a family that she loved more was enough consolation.

  

  She hadn’t reached out nor had she tried to contact me… she must have hated me so much?

  And that was exactly why I didn’t want Jackson to propose… I loved him so much but not in that way…

  

  I could never give someone else that trust… the one the Thorne brothers had stolen from me.

  

  “I told him not to,” I muttered quietly into the phone.

  

  Sam snorted on the other end. “You told him you weren’t ready,” she corrected. “That’s different.”

  

  “It’s really not,” I said flatly.

  

  My eyes drifted across the deck and landed on him.

  

  He had been such a good father figure to Lia and a good partner to me but J just couldn’t… we had tried and I found myself utterly repulsed by his kiss.

  

  “How is Lia?” J asked her and she chuckled knowingly.

  

  I heard her beckon her before she said, “I think he had called asleep while watching Ariel for the umpteenth time, but nice try.”

  

  My chest softened immediately. Lia, four years old and the center of my entire world… the only good thing I had gotten from that night with the Thorne brothers.

  

  Jackson suddenly looked up and flashed me a smile, one which I reciprocated. He was one of a kind with that charming effortless beauty and was everything I never thought I needed. 

  

  “Hello?” I heard Sam call out and almost immediately Jackson looked away, his eyes slowly following the waitress that had just walked away.

  

  Every few minutes he would wave someone down, leaning in close as he spoke softly, slipping folded bills into their hands.

  

  My jaw tightened at the thought of what my best friend said, what if it was true? “I told him no,” I repeated under my breath.

  

  “Men hear what they want to hear,” Sam said casually. “Besides, maybe he thinks a romantic gesture will change your mind.”

  

  I watched as Jack whispered something to another waitress, his expression serious before she nodded eagerly and hurried away. 

  

  “Romantic gesture, huh?” I repeated dryly.

  

  Sam laughed softly. “Oh come on. You’re on a luxury cruise to Italy, your dream destination. If a man proposes here, that’s basically a fairy tale.”

  

  My heart twisted. Jack was good to us, he always had been. 

  

  He had stepped up immediately he had found out I was having Lia… he knew I needed him, and he had paused his own life to be exactly what I needed.

   

  And I cared about him. I really did.

  

  But marriage… Marriage felt like a cage I had barely escaped once before. “Marriage doesn’t have to be the end game,” I said quietly.

  

  Sam was silent for a moment as if understanding my point. “You’re still afraid,” she said gently.

  

  And I didn't answer, because maybe she was right.  Years had passed since I walked away from that house… since the humiliation that had shattered me. 

  

  I now had a good life, with just Lia, Sam and Jack in the world I had created together. 

  

  “Aurelia?”

  

  “Yeah?”

  

  “If he does propose… just breathe before you say anything.”

  

  I let out a quiet laugh. “Don’t worry. I plan to say no very clearly.”

  

  “Heartbreaker,” she teased.

  

  The call ended and I lowered the phone slowly.

  

  I pushed myself up from the lounge chair. “I’m going to grab my purse.”

  

  Jack glanced up at me, pure love in his eyes before nodding. I turned and walked toward the interior of the ship. 

  

  The air shifted as I walked down the hallway toward the private dining room we had reserved earlier.

  

  My purse was inside.  At least… that’s what I thought.

  

  I pushed the door open and I froze.!

  

  The room had been transformed. There were candles along the long tables, white roses arranged everywhere, on the table, along the windows, even scattered carefully across the floor. 

  

  Soft music played from somewhere in the background and my heart instantly sank. “Oh my god,” I whispered.

  

  No!

  

  Before I could process what I was seeing, Jack had stepped forward and dropped to one knee.

  

  The small burgundy box in his hand opened with a soft click and Inside of it was a diamond that caught the candlelight.

  

  “Aurelia,” he said softly.

  

  My chest tightened instantly with anxiety, “Jack… please”

  

  He smiled up at me, hopeful and nervous all at once. “I know you’ve said you weren’t ready,” he began gently. “But I also know how much you’ve been hurt in the past.”

  

  My stomach twisted painfully. 

  

  Please no, don't do this. 

  

  “I’m not trying to rush you,” he continued. “I just want you to know how much you mean to me. How much you and Lia both mean to me.”

  

  I could feel heat clawing at my chest as he spoke.  “I want to be your family,” he said.

  

  My mind raced. I had told him no, over and over, told him I wasn't ready and that I didn't believe in marriage anymore, that the life we had now was enough. 

  

  Yet, here he was… on one knee, on a cruise ship heading to the place I had dreamed about for years.

  

  Trying to turn my dream into a memory I would feel guilty rejecting.

  

  My chest tightened painfully at the thought of it.  “Jack…”

  

  I took a small step back and I watched as he shook his head, as if already getting ready for the answer. “I can’t…”

  

  He stood up, his face slowly morphing into a frown, “What do you mean by you can’t?”

  

  “I have tried to be everything you needed… given you support and thug this till let those jerks ruin your life?!”

  

  I took a step backwards, “Jackson?”

  

  “Oh please don’t Jackson me, how long do I have to wait huh? For how long would you contro tract me like trash when I’m the one doing you a favour!”

  

  He kept on going, “How many men do you think would step up and father a child born out of her mothers gre…”

  

  The door behind me burst open with a sudden sharp sound, startling enough that both of us turned instantly.

  

  My heart dropped at the person that appeared first, “Aurelia baby.”