The women finish up with helping me get into my dress and I thank them before they walk out of the room.

I look at myself in the mirror, still scared that Vincenzo is going to get mad because of how revealing this dress is.

This can go two ways, he can either hate it and not talk to me for the rest of the night, or he likes it and keeps his hands on me the entire night so everyone here know that I'm his and his only.

My thick braids are done extremely long because I wanted them to cover my back as much as possible. The braids only cover my back and not my sides so I'm still showing a lot of skin.

Loredana and Aurora reassured me that Vincenzo going to love this dress, but I still have doubts.

I quickly grab the holster on the dressing table and wrap it around my right leg. The slit is going to make it hard to hide the entire thing, so I just hope no one stares at my leg for too long.

I walk out of the bedroom and close the door behind me. "Damn," a voice says from behind me. I turn around to see my two best friends.

They're both wearing black turtle necks and black dress pants. I've never really seen them in anything other than their suits when they are on duty.

"You guys look amazing," I say with the biggest smile. They look absolutely handsome and I'm actually a bit jealous that they look so good in something so simple.

"Have you seen yourself?" Nicola says while pointing to my dress. I shyly smile and look away from the both of them. "You look amazing." I look at them and they smile at me.

"In this dress, men will be getting down on their knees just for you," Angelo says and I roll my eyes. "I'm serious."

"Well you two are still standing," I laugh.

Nicola quickly gets down on both his knees and I laugh even harder. He bows down in front of my feet and tells me that I look beautiful before lifting his head.

"You are so stupid," I say while holding my hands out to him. He takes a hold of my hands and I pull him up as he gets up from the floor.

"If telling you the truth is me being stupid, the in the biggest idiot in the world," he says with a wink and a shove of my shoulder.

I push him back and he burst out laughing. Nicola is more of the goofball between him and Angelo, while Angelo is the protective and serious one.

They are a good duo and it makes me happy that they are both my guards, but more importantly, my friends.

"Let's go knock 'em dead," Nicola says while holding his hand out to me. I take a hold of his hand and grab Angelo's hand too. We walk down the hallway together, talking about little things.

They make me laugh loudly as we walk down the stairs to the main floor of the mansion. My nerves start coming up to the surface as I stop laughing.

The ball started a few minutes ago and I actually don't want to go, mostly because it's going to be a room full of people who will judge me because of my skin colour.

"You will be ok," Nicola says to me with a gentle smile and I only nod. We stop in front of the doors that lead to the ballroom and I really don't want to go in there.

The guards standing by the doors open them for us and Nicola and Angelo let go of my hands. I walk in first and they stay behind me.

With a few of my braids hanging over my shoulder and a bit of my right leg exposed due to the slit, I walk further and stop right at the edge of the high staircase.

Everyone stops speaking when they see me standing up here. Nicola and Angelo stand behind with clear faces, taking their positions as my bodyguards.

"Presenting the next Queen of the Sicilian Mafia," a voice speaks through the speakers.

I hold my hands in front of me and try to look like I'm not having an internal panic attack.

"Nyx Manson."

That's when the whispers began. The people in the ballroom start to say whatever they think of me, dimming my already non-existant confidence.

My eyes drop to the bottom of the staircase and I smile when I see Vincenzo talking to my father.

What is my father doing here?

My father looks up at me, making Vincenzo also look up. From the stunned look on his face, he does not hate my dress. He smirks as his eyes move up from my feet to my eyes.

Taking a deep breath in, I take a step down the stairs.

The room becomes silent once more, the sound of my clicking heels echoing throughout the ballroom as I descend the stairs as gracefully as I can.

Nicola and Angelo stay a good distance behind me as they look around the room for any dangers.

I come to a stop on the last stair and Vincenzo's eyes fall down to my exposed waist.

"Father?" My father smiles at me as he opens his arms. He is wearing an all black suit, a suit colour I've actually never seen him in. I walk into his embrace and hug him tightly. We pull away from each other a moment later. "What are you doing here?"

"Your boyfriend asked me to be here. You said I should give a chance, and well, here I am," he says which causes me to smile.

If I wasn't wearing this dress nor these high heels, I would be jumping up and down out of pure joy.

My attention moves over to Vincenzo who is still in awe of the dress in wearing. "You like?"

"I love it, amore," he responds quickly. "You look absolute amazing," he says while holding his hand out to me. I take a hold of it and he leads me towards the rest of his family, and my father follows us with a smile.

I'm glad that he is here and is actually giving Vincenzo a chance. If he just gets to know the man I know, he will see the good in him.

"Fuck man," Riccardo says when he sees me. I smile, a bit shy that Riccardo is almost speechless due to how I look right now.

"Way to make us feel single," Lorenzo says with a playful glare. "Your woman never ceases to be beautiful," he says with a smile and a wink directed at me.

"Zia, you are so pretty," Paolo says while coming up to me. He is also wearing all black, just like the rest of the family.

Vincenzo and I are the only ones wearing anything with a bit more colour, making us the key focuses of the family at the moment.

Paolo pulls at the material of my dress a little and I smile down at him. "Very beautiful," he adds with the largest smile on his face.

I go down into a squatting position in front of him, the slit slipping to the side as it exposes my thigh. "And you look very handsome," I say while brushing a strand of his black her to the side.

I straighten up and turn to Vincenzo. My gaze lowers a bit, because he is down on his knee. "Are you ok?" I ask as I lean forward to help him back up, but he lifts his right fist.

He opens his fist, revealing a black box. I stare at for a second before taking it out of his hand. I flip the top and my jaw drops.

"I didn't want to say something cheesy and ruin the moment because I seem to always say something like that to you," he begins with a nervous smile spread across his lips.

I look over at my father who is just smiling at us. Everyone in the ballroom can see us and I feel how some of them are judging us.

"But it's kind of hard not to be cheesy because you just make me so happy." My hands begin to shake as I try to not drop the box in my hand.

"At first, my plan was not to even see us through for a week, but after just a few hours, I made the choice to buy you a car so I guess that was my way of telling you that I wanted to see us through."

I still can't get over the fact that he bought me a car after knowing me for only a day or so.

"And when I asked you to stay with me in the penthouse, I just knew," he says with a wide smile.

"I know this is unexpected amore, but when I realised that I've fallen, that I've fallen for you, I couldn't bear the thought of losing you."

Tears begin to brim my eyes as I try to not cry right now. So many emotion are running through me right now, one of them being unexplainable joy.

"So, I thought the only way of making sure that I don't lose you, is to make you mine, for the rest of my life."

My eyes move between him and the giant diamond set in the middle of the silver ring in the box. The loop is surrounded by small diamonds that has even smaller diamonds encrusted into its surface.

This ring looks like it cost over a small fortune.

"Amore, with that ring in your hand, will you make me happier than I already am, and marry me?"

He finally asks me that question and my mind shuts off. My shaking hands become worse and the tears escape my eyes when I blink. I've seen myself spend the rest of my life with this man, and he has also had the same idea for a while.

Marrying Vincenzo will bring so much danger to my life and maybe even my father's, but I know I'm safe, I know everyone I love will be safe.

"Yes."

Vincenzo jumps up from the floor, his face full of relief. He takes the ring from the box and doesn't hesitate as he slips it onto my finger. I laugh due to how happy I am and look at the beautiful ring sitting on my finger.

He captures my lips in his as his hands come up to cup my face. I push myself closer to his body and hold his forearms.

"Presenting the Don and Donna of the Sicilian Mafia, Vincenzo Martinelli and soon to be Nyx Martinelli," the voice from earlier says through the speakers.

Nyx Martinelli.

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Been waiting to write this for a minute, ngl.

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