Page 149 of Secret Heir

She’s nodding before I even finish, laughing shakily through her tears. “Yes, of course yes. I choose you, Maksim. I choose you and this life and our family. Yes.”

I slide the ring onto her finger and pull her into my arms, my cheeks hurting from smiling so wide. She’s laughing and crying at the same time, her hands in my hair, her face pressed against my neck.

“I love you,” she tells me between kisses. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” I hold her close. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never regret choosing me.”

“I could never regret this.” She pulls back to look at the ring, turning her hand to catch the light and she gasps softly. “It’s beautiful, Maksim. Where did it come from?”

“My grandmother’s.” I tell her, capturing her hand in mine as I kiss her knuckles, feeling the diamond scratch softly against my cheek. “My mother gave it to me years ago and told me to save it for someone special.” I press a kiss to her forehead.

“Why didn’t she give it to Nikolai?” Aria asks, smiling softly at me. “That to me screams an eldest child thing.”

I snort. “Our mother knew that Nikolai was destined to be a perpetual bachelor, even from the time he was a child. I was her quote ‘only hope’ unquote, so she gave it to me. I never thought I’d find that special someone.” I cup her face and smile tenderly at her. “Then you walked into my life and changed everything.”

She kisses me again, and I forget about everything else. Right now, there’s just this woman who chose me and is going to be my wife.

We tell Daniel that evening over dinner.

I don’t know why I’m so nervous. Daniel loves both of us, but asking for his approval still feels important.

“Daniel, we have something to tell you,” Aria starts.

The boy looks up from his steak immediately, his eyes going wary. Trauma has made him alert to “we need to talk” moments. His fork freezes halfway to his mouth.

“Nothing bad,” I say quickly. “I promise. It’s actually something good.”

Daniel relaxes slightly and sets down his fork. “Okay,” he says slowly, glancing at us.

“I asked your mother to marry me today.” I reach across the table and take Aria’s hand so Daniel can see the ring. “And she said yes.”

Daniel blinks and I can literally see his brain processing this information. “Y-you’re getting married?” he asks in wonder. “Like, for real married? With a wedding and everything?”

Aria smiles. “Yes, sweetheart. For real married. With a wedding and everything.”

“Does that mean we’re a real family now?”

The question hits me harder than it should. “We were already a real family, solnyshko. But yes, it makes it official. Your mother and I will be married, and you’ll officially be Daniel Sokolov instead of Daniel Mitchell.”

Daniel is quiet for a moment, his face serious in that way children get when they’re thinking hard about something important. Then he gets up from his chair and walks over to me, climbing into my lap. I’m surprised and the noise Aria makes shows she is too. Usually Daniel is too grown-up for such things, but right now he’s just a child seeking comfort and connection.

“Papa?”

I’ll never get sick of hearing that. “Yes, solnyshko?”

“I want to tell you something.”

My throat tightens. “What is it?”

Daniel takes a breath. “For a long time it was just me and Mama. We didn’t have a lot of money and we moved around a lot and sometimes I was scared. Scared we wouldn’t have enough food or that Mama would get sick or that we’d have to move again and I’d lose my friends.”

I can see Aria out of the corner of my eye, her hand pressed to her mouth.

“I always worried about Mama,” Daniel continues, his small voice steady. “About whether she was happy. She tried to hide it, but sometimes I’d hear her crying at night when she thought I was asleep. And I wanted to make things better and I didn’t know how.”

“Daniel,” I start, but he shakes his head.

“Let me finish, Papa.” He takes another breath. “But then we met you, and even though some bad things happened I’m glad we found you. Because now we’re safe and I don’t worry about food anymore or whether we’ll have a home. And Mama is happy. I can tell because she smiles all the time now and she doesn’t cry at night anymore.”