Chapter 10 - The House She Chose
Six months later, the Duca estate had a new security score.
Tessa stood in the kitchen holding the final report.
Marco sat at the island.
Cal waited nearby.
Anthony, fully recovered and cooperating with investigators, leaned against the counter.
Tessa cleared her throat.
Marco looked suspicious.
“Just say it.”
“Nine point five.”
Marco stared.
Cal smiled.
Anthony laughed.
Marco looked offended.
“Why?”
Tessa turned a page.
“Because perfect security doesn’t exist.”
“I spent 6 months implementing everything you recommended.”
“Correct.”
“You personally designed the system.”
“Correct.”
“Then why isn’t it 10?”
She smiled.
“Human factor.”
Marco narrowed his eyes.
“Explain.”
“You still leave your office unlocked when I’m inside.”
“That isn’t a vulnerability.”
“It objectively is.”
“You’re authorized.”
“I stole your watch yesterday.”
Marco looked at his wrist.
Empty.
Anthony nearly fell over laughing.
Marco slowly looked back at Tessa.
She placed his watch on the island.
“You’re impossible.”
“You hired me.”
“You keep using that defense.”
“It keeps working.”
Life had changed.
Bell Tower was gone.
Vale was awaiting trial alongside several former associates.
Janus had been placed under independent legal control.
Daniel Morgan’s death had officially been reopened and reclassified as homicide.
So had Victor Duca’s.
Enzo had disappeared after giving investigators everything he knew.
He left one message for Marco.
Your father would be proud you became harder to control than he was.
Anthony had spent months repairing what could be repaired.
Marco had not forgiven him completely.
But forgiveness, Tessa had learned, was sometimes a road rather than a door.
Cal remained exactly Cal.
And Tessa still stole pears.
Some things deserved continuity.
That afternoon, Marco found her outside reviewing plans for a redesigned guesthouse.
“You’re working.”
“So are you.”
“I own the place.”
“I’m billing you.”
He stepped behind her.
His hands settled around her waist.
Six months earlier, Tessa would have instinctively calculated distance, exits, sight lines.
Now she leaned against him.
“You’re distracting me.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I’ve improved.”
“Debatable.”
Marco kissed her temple.
Then placed something beside the architectural plans.
A yellow folder.
Tessa stared at it.
“What’s this?”
“Assessment.”
She opened it.
The cover read:
Private Residential Security Assessment
Below:
Duca Estate
And beneath it:
Permanent Consultant Proposal
Tessa laughed.
“You’re offering me a job?”
“Keep reading.”
She turned the page.
One sentence.
Move in with me.
Her smile disappeared.
Marco watched her carefully.
For perhaps the first time since she had known him, Marco Duca looked genuinely uncertain.
“You put a relationship proposal in a security report?”
“It seemed appropriate.”
“This may be the least romantic thing anyone has ever done.”
“I considered flowers.”
“And?”
“They die.”
“Jewelry?”
“You’d inspect it for tracking devices.”
“Correct.”
“Dinner?”
“You’d complain about predictable entry points.”
“Also correct.”
“So I used paperwork.”
Tessa tried not to smile.
Failed.
Marco’s expression softened.
“This house was never a home to me.”
She looked up.
“It was property. Responsibility. Something my father left behind.”
His fingers closed gently around hers.
“Then you broke into it.”
“I was hired.”
“You stole from me.”
“One pear.”
“Repeatedly.”
“Your inventory controls need improvement.”
“Tessa.”
She quieted.
Marco took a breath.
“You walked into the most guarded place in my life and somehow made it feel less guarded.”
Her eyes filled.
Marco continued.
“I spent years thinking safety meant making sure nobody could reach me.”
He touched her cheek.
“You taught me that sometimes the person who reaches you is the reason you stop needing walls.”
Tessa swallowed.
“That was actually romantic.”
“I regret it already.”
She laughed.
Then noticed something inside the folder.
Another page.
A photograph.
The kitchen on the morning they met.
Tessa sitting at the island with the pear.
Marco standing in the doorway.
She frowned.
“Who took this?”
“Cal.”
From inside the house, Cal shouted, “Security documentation!”
Tessa laughed harder.
Marco reached into his pocket.
This time, there was a ring.
Her laughter stopped.
“Marco.”
“I know you hate surprises.”
“I do.”
“So you’ve probably already noticed the ring box has been in my right pocket for 23 minutes.”
“Twenty-seven.”
He stared.
She smiled through tears.
“Your jacket hangs differently.”
Marco shook his head.
“Of course it does.”
He lowered himself onto one knee.
For once, Tessa Morgan had absolutely nothing clever to say.
Marco opened the box.
“Tessa Morgan, will you spend the rest of your life finding everything wrong with my security, stealing my fruit, insulting my decisions, and making this house somewhere I actually want to come home to?”
Tessa wiped beneath one eye.
“That proposal needs editing.”
Marco’s face fell.
She knelt in front of him.
Then kissed him.
“Yes.”
He exhaled.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
“You could have led with that.”
“Where’s the fun?”
Marco slid the ring onto her finger.
Tessa examined it.
“Tracker?”
“No.”
“GPS?”
“No.”
“Microphone?”
“Tessa.”
“Just checking.”
He kissed her again.
A year later, they married at the estate.
Not in a ballroom.
Not before hundreds of people.
In the garden.
Cal stood beside Marco.
Anthony stood beside him too.
Tessa walked toward them without anyone giving her away because, as she had informed Marco, she was perfectly capable of finding her own way to him.
Their vows were short.
Their kiss was not.
And when everyone went inside for dinner, Marco discovered a handwritten card beside his plate.
FINAL SECURITY ASSESSMENT
He opened it.
Duca Estate: 10/10.
Marco looked across the table.
Tessa was watching him.
He raised an eyebrow.
She smiled.
He turned the card over.
There was one more line.
Not because nobody can get in. Because I finally want to stay.
Marco looked at the woman who had entered his life as a professional problem.
The woman who had defeated his alarms, exposed his enemies, challenged his pride, uncovered the truth about their fathers, and found every locked door he had spent years pretending wasn’t there.
Then he noticed the fruit bowl.
One pear was missing.
Marco looked at Tessa.
She slowly lifted it from beneath the table.
“Seriously?”
She bit into it.
Crunch.
Marco laughed.
Not almost.
Not briefly.
Not reluctantly.
He laughed because the mansion was secure, their enemies were gone, their families finally knew the truth, and the one person capable of breaking through every defense he had ever built had chosen not to leave.
Tessa leaned closer.
“Still think I’m a security risk?”
Marco slipped an arm around his wife.
“The biggest one I’ve ever had.”
“Should I go?”
His smile faded into something softer.
“Never.”
May you like
And for the first time in either of their lives, staying did not feel like surrender.
It felt like home.
