Updated Apr 16, 2026 • ~10 min read
Chapter 25: The Proposal
Luna
Luna notices Matthias acting strange for about a week before the proposal happens—he’s secretive in a way that’s adorable rather than concerning, taking phone calls in other rooms and smiling to himself when he thinks she’s not looking, and Luna suspects he’s planning something but doesn’t want to guess what because the anticipation is half the fun.
What she doesn’t expect is to come home from work on a random Thursday evening to find Sofia practically vibrating with barely contained excitement, bouncing on her toes and whispering with Matthias in the kitchen, both of them going silent when Luna enters.
“What’s going on?” Luna asks, setting down her purse and looking between her daughter and her boyfriend with suspicion that’s more amused than concerned.
“Nothing!” Sofia says too quickly, giggling in that way that makes it clear something is definitely happening.
“Sofia’s helping me with a surprise,” Matthias says, and there’s nervousness in his expression that makes Luna’s heart start beating faster. “But we need a few more minutes. Can you maybe take a shower or something? Relax after work?”
Luna considers pressing for details, but the excitement in Sofia’s eyes and the hope in Matthias’s makes her decide to play along, so she heads upstairs for the world’s fastest shower, changing into comfortable clothes and trying not to spiral into speculation about what surprise requires Sofia’s help and makes Matthias look simultaneously terrified and ecstatic.
When she comes back downstairs twenty minutes later, the living room has been transformed—fairy lights strung around the windows (where did those come from?), candles lit on every surface (probably a fire hazard with a three-year-old in the house), and Sofia standing by the couch wearing her fanciest dress and holding a small velvet pillow with something on it that Luna can’t quite see from the doorway.
Matthias is in the center of the room in one of his good suits, and when he sees Luna he smiles with such genuine love that Luna’s breath catches because whatever this is, it’s big, it’s important, it’s the moment that changes everything.
“Mama!” Sofia stage-whispers. “Come here! Daddy has a question!”
And suddenly Luna knows—knows what the surprise is, what Matthias has been planning, what Sofia is helping with—and tears start gathering in her eyes before Matthias has even said a word.
“Luna,” Matthias starts, and then he’s getting down on one knee right there in their living room while Sofia bounces excitedly beside him. “I asked Sofia for permission first—”
“I said yes!” Sofia interrupts helpfully, and Matthias laughs.
“She said yes,” Matthias confirms, his eyes never leaving Luna’s face. “I asked her if I could marry her mama, and she wanted to know if that meant I’d be her daddy forever, and I promised her forever and ever, and she insisted on helping.”
Sofia holds up the pillow proudly, revealing a ring that even from a distance looks stunning—not ostentatious or enormous like Luna might have expected from a billionaire CEO, but elegant and perfect, a single diamond that catches the light from the candles.
“Luna Vega,” Matthias says, and his voice is shaking slightly with emotion. “You gave me the greatest gift when you gave me our daughter. And then you gave me a second chance when you had every reason not to. You let me into Sofia’s life, into your life, into your heart. You made me a father and a better man. You showed me what family means and what love looks like and what I want for the rest of my life.”
Luna is crying now, silent tears running down her face while Sofia watches with wide eyes, apparently understanding that this is an important grown-up moment even if she doesn’t fully comprehend what it means.
“I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of our lives,” Matthias continues. “I want to raise Sofia together and maybe give her siblings someday. I want to argue about dishes and make Saturday morning pancakes and grow old watching our family expand. I want everything with you, Luna. Everything. Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” Luna says before he even finishes asking, the word bursting out of her with absolute certainty. “Yes, forever yes!”
Matthias laughs with relief and joy, standing up to slide the ring onto Luna’s finger, and it fits perfectly—of course it does, Matthias probably measured one of her other rings to make sure—and then he’s pulling her into his arms and kissing her while Sofia shouts “Group hug!” and launches herself at both of them.
They collapse onto the couch in a tangle of arms and laughter and happy tears, Sofia wedged between them and chattering about how she helped pick the ring (“Daddy showed me pictures and I said the sparkly one!”) and how this means they’re a real family now (“Like Emma at daycare!”), and Luna holds her daughter with one arm and reaches for Matthias with the other, looking at the ring on her finger and thinking that this is what happiness looks like.
“I love you,” Luna says to Matthias when Sofia temporarily pauses for breath. “So much. More than I knew I could love anyone besides Sofia.”
“I love you too,” Matthias says, and there are tears on his face that he’s not even trying to hide. “Both of you. My family.”
“When’s the wedding?” Sofia asks with the impatience of a three-year-old who doesn’t understand why happy things can’t happen immediately. “Can I wear my princess dress?”
“You can be our flower girl,” Matthias promises. “In whatever dress you want. If that’s okay with Mama?”
“That’s more than okay,” Luna confirms, imagining Sofia walking down an aisle scattering flower petals and probably causing chaos in the most adorable way possible. “Though Sofia, weddings take time to plan. It might be a few months.”
“That’s so long!” Sofia protests, but she’s already distracted by examining Luna’s ring, holding Luna’s hand up to the light and watching the diamond sparkle. “It’s so pretty, Mama!”
“It is,” Luna agrees, and she meets Matthias’s eyes over Sofia’s head, seeing her own joy and anticipation and love reflected back. “Everything is so pretty.”
They order pizza for dinner instead of cooking, too excited to care about healthy meals or balanced nutrition, and Sofia insists on calling Carmen to tell her the news (“Mama and Daddy are getting married and I’m the flower girl!”), and Carmen’s shriek of excitement is loud enough that they can hear it without the phone even on speaker.
After Sofia is in bed—chattering about weddings and princess dresses until she finally falls asleep mid-sentence—Matthias and Luna collapse on the couch together, exhausted and happy and still processing that they’re engaged, that they’re going to get married, that their unconventional family is about to become legally official.
“I can’t believe you asked Sofia for permission first,” Luna says, playing with her ring and still marveling that it’s real, that Matthias actually proposed, that she said yes without a single hesitation.
“Of course I did,” Matthias says like it’s obvious. “She’s part of this family. Her opinion matters. And Luna, when I asked her if I could marry you, she asked me if I’d be her daddy forever, and I realized that’s what this is about—not just you and me, but all three of us choosing each other. Choosing to be a family permanently. Choosing forever.”
“Forever,” Luna echoes, testing out the word that used to terrify her and now just sounds like promise. “I like the sound of that.”
“Me too,” Matthias says, pulling her closer. “Though full disclosure—my mother is going to have opinions about wedding planning. Strong opinions. Possibly opinions that involve the word ‘society’ and ‘obligation’ and ‘appropriate.'”
Luna laughs because she can already imagine Helene’s reaction to the engagement, the immediate campaign for a huge society wedding that will broadcast to all of German-American high society that the Wolfe family is welcoming a new member.
“Let her have opinions,” Luna says. “We’ll smile and nod and then do what we want anyway.”
“Which is?” Matthias asks.
“Small,” Luna says immediately. “Intimate. Just people who actually matter. No society obligation invites or business networking disguised as celebration. Just family and close friends watching us commit to each other.”
“That sounds perfect,” Matthias agrees. “Though Sofia might have opinions about the size of her flower girl dress.”
“Sofia’s opinions I’ll actually consider,” Luna says with a smile. “Your mother’s are negotiable.”
They talk for hours about the wedding they want—not immediate plans but dreams and preferences and the general shape of how they want to celebrate this commitment. Luna wants Carmen as maid of honor and maybe Greta as a bridesmaid now that she and Matthias’s sister have become genuine friends. Matthias wants something in their backyard rather than a formal venue. They both want Sofia central to the ceremony, not just an attendant but an active participant in creating their family.
“When?” Matthias asks eventually. “How long do you want to wait?”
“I don’t know,” Luna admits. “Part of me wants to do it tomorrow. But planning takes time, and I want it to be thoughtful, not rushed.”
“Six months?” Matthias suggests. “Long enough to plan something beautiful but not so long that we’re engaged forever?”
“Six months,” Luna agrees, doing mental math. “That would be… early next year. Winter wedding?”
“Or we could wait for spring,” Matthias counters. “Backyard ceremony with flowers blooming. Sofia could actually scatter real petals instead of artificial ones.”
They settle on spring—give themselves nine months to plan, to make sure everything is exactly what they want, to let Sofia fully adjust to the idea before the actual wedding happens—and by the time they finally go to bed, Luna feels like her life has transformed from the chaotic single motherhood of a year ago into something she never quite let herself imagine.
She’s engaged.
To Matthias Wolfe.
The man who’s Sofia’s father and her partner and her best friend and the person who makes her laugh and frustrates her and loves her so completely that sometimes it’s overwhelming.
“Thank you,” Luna says in the darkness of their bedroom, Matthias already half-asleep beside her. “For choosing us. For asking Sofia first. For making this about our family instead of just about us.”
“Always,” Matthias murmurs sleepily. “You and Sofia. That’s all that matters. Forever.”
Luna falls asleep with her engagement ring catching the moonlight from their window, with Matthias’s arm around her waist and the sound of Sofia’s soft breathing from the monitor on the nightstand, and dreams about their future—the wedding they’ll plan, the life they’ll build, the family they’ve chosen to become.
From one night stand to forever.
From secret baby to proposed-to fiancée.
From single mother terrified of heartbreak to woman brave enough to say yes to forever.
Luna never imagined this would be her story.
But she wouldn’t change a single chapter.
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