Chapter 8 - The Day Nico Became a Moretti Man
Nico proposed to Maya Bennett when he was twenty-seven.
He did it without telling his parents first.
Lucian was offended.
“You didn't ask my advice.”
Nico stared.
“About proposing?”
“Yes.”
“Dad, your first marriage ended in divorce.”
Lucian opened his mouth.
Nico continued.
“And your second marriage is to the same woman.”
Serena nearly choked on her wine.
Lucian looked betrayed.
“I've learned things.”
“Mostly the hard way.”
“Those lessons still count.”
Maya laughed.
Serena liked her immediately.
She was an emergency-room physician.
Smart.
Direct.
Completely unimpressed by the Moretti surname.
When Lucian attempted to pay for the entire wedding, Maya said:
“No.”
Lucian blinked.
Serena smiled.
Nico whispered:
“Welcome to my childhood.”
Lucian eventually negotiated permission to pay for dinner.
Nothing else.
The wedding was scheduled for October.
Three months before it, Nico arrived at his parents' house alone.
Serena knew immediately something was wrong.
“Where's Maya?”
“At work.”
Lucian looked up.
“What happened?”
Nico placed an envelope on the table.
Inside was an offer from an international shipping conglomerate.
Executive vice president.
London.
Seven-figure compensation.
Equity.
Private aircraft access.
A future path toward CEO.
Lucian read it.
“This is extraordinary.”
Nico didn't smile.
“Maya got offered an attending position at Mercy.”
Serena understood.
“And she wants to stay.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want?”
Nico looked at his father.
“That's the problem.”
Lucian placed the offer down.
“Why?”
“Because I want this.”
“And?”
“I want Maya.”
Serena sat.
“Nico, those aren't automatically incompatible.”
“They are if one requires London and the other requires New York.”
Lucian remained silent.
Nico became irritated.
“Aren't you going to say anything?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don't know. You're the business guy.”
Lucian's expression changed.
Serena saw it immediately.
The old story had returned wearing a new suit.
A man.
A woman he loved.
A career demanding his presence somewhere else.
A decision.
Lucian asked:
“What does Maya say?”
“That she doesn't want to be the reason I turn it down.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“That I needed time.”
Lucian nodded.
“Good.”
“That's it?”
“No.”
He leaned back.
“When I was your age, I believed every opportunity had to be taken because another man might take it first.”
Nico listened.
“I treated life like territory.”
“Business.”
“Money.”
“Influence.”
“Even people.”
Lucian looked toward Serena.
“I thought love would wait while ambition finished eating.”
Serena's eyes softened.
Nico looked at the contract.
“So you're telling me to reject it?”
“No.”
Nico frowned.
“Then what are you telling me?”
“Don't ask which choice makes you look more successful.”
“Ask which life you actually want.”
Nico was quiet.
“What if I regret choosing Maya?”
“You might.”
“What if I regret London?”
“You might.”
“That doesn't help.”
Lucian smiled.
“Welcome to adulthood.”
Nico groaned.
Serena laughed.
Then Lucian became serious.
“There's no decision without loss.”
“The mistake is believing success can protect you from that.”
Nico left with the envelope.
Three days later, he turned down London.
But he did something Lucian hadn't expected.
He accepted a lower-level position with the same company in New York, negotiated international responsibilities, and arranged quarterly travel.
“You found a third option,” Lucian said.
Nico shrugged.
“Maya suggested I actually ask.”
Lucian looked at Serena.
She smiled.
“Imagine that.”
The wedding arrived.
Nico stood at the altar.
Lucian stood beside him.
Minutes before Maya entered, Nico whispered:
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“Were you scared the second time?”
“Marrying your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Terrified.”
“Why?”
“Because the first time I believed love meant she wouldn't leave.”
“And the second?”
“I knew she could.”
Nico frowned.
“How was that better?”
“Because she stayed freely.”
Nico looked toward the doors.
Lucian continued.
“Don't build a marriage where Maya can't leave.”
“Build one she keeps choosing.”
The doors opened.
Maya appeared.
Nico stopped breathing.
Lucian smiled.
“There.”
“What?”
“That face.”
“What face?”
“The one that says you understand.”
Nico's eyes filled.
“Shut up, Dad.”
“Excellent start to married life.”
After the ceremony, Serena danced with Nico.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Nervous?”
“Yeah.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
“Why does everybody say that?”
“Because confidence is overrated.”
Nico looked across the room.
Lucian was dancing badly with Maya's grandmother.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever regret marrying Dad again?”
Serena considered.
“No.”
“Never?”
“I've regretted individual Tuesdays.”
Nico laughed.
“But not the choice.”
“Why?”
She looked at Lucian.
“Because the second time, neither of us confused marriage with ownership.”
Nico nodded.
Then Serena added:
“And because your father eventually became very good at Tuesdays.”
Across the room, Lucian caught her looking.
He smiled.
Serena smiled back.
Twenty-seven years earlier, she had left him because she refused to teach her newborn son that love meant accepting absence.
Now that son stood in front of her preparing to build his own family.
Not perfectly.
But consciously.
May you like
Perhaps that was the only inheritance worth leaving.
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