Chapter 21
Dario proposed to Anna when Elsie was fourteen.
He made one mistake before doing it.
He asked Elsie whether she was okay with the idea.
She stared at him.
“You want marry Anna?”
“Yes.”
“Then why me?”
Dario stopped.
He had expected feelings.
Concern.
Maybe gratitude that he asked.
Not logic.
“You live here too.”
“Yes.”
“She would become part of the household.”
“Yes.”
“So your opinion matters.”
Elsie frowned.
“Opinion or permission?”
That was Julia again.
Definitely.
“Opinion.”
“Then I like Anna.”
Dario waited.
“That’s all?”
“She makes bad soup.”
“She does.”
“And she leaves books open upside down.”
“Criminal.”
Elsie nodded.
“Still like.”
Dario almost laughed.
Then she became serious.
“Don’t ask me if you can marry.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because if I say no, what?”
There it was.
He had accidentally placed adult responsibility into a child’s hands.
Older child.
Still his child.
Dario nodded.
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
Unfortunate confidence.
He asked Anna two weeks later.
Not in the dining gallery.
Not at an estate event.
Not with family waiting nearby.
At her apartment.
She looked at the ring.
Then at him.
“No.”
Dario stopped breathing correctly.
Anna continued.
“Not no forever.”
That did not improve breathing much.
“I want to talk first.”
Of course.
They discussed residence.
Finances.
Security.
Her work.
Elsie.
Estate staff.
The fact Anna would have no automatic authority over Ravello businesses.
The fact marriage would not make Dario responsible for knowing where Anna was every hour.
That last one felt pointed.
It was.
They discussed Elena.
Anna said:
“I will not live in a marriage where every disagreement becomes evidence I might become Camilla.”
Dario looked down.
Fair.
“I don’t want that either.”
“Wanting is easy.”
He almost smiled.
“That sounds like Julia.”
“Terrifying.”
They spent three months working through details.
Not because love was weak.
Because assumptions had once been expensive.
Then Dario asked again.
Same apartment.
No elaborate setting.
Anna said yes.
Elsie learned at breakfast.
She looked at the ring.
Then at Anna.
“Can I see?”
Anna held out her hand.
Elsie examined it.
“Different.”
Dario knew what she meant.
Not Elena’s.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Anna looked at Dario.
He understood.
No replacement.
No inherited object.
No symbolic continuity required.
Later, one aunt asked whether Elsie would stand beside Anna during the wedding “to show the family is united.”
Dario answered:
“No.”
The aunt looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because she is my daughter.”
Silence.
“Not a visual argument.”
Elsie heard later.
May you like
She approved.
Mostly because formal standing sounded exhausting.
