Chapter 12 - Vanessa’s Condition Before Saying Yes
Daniel proposed in Eleanor’s rose garden.
No photographers.
No orchestra.
No crowd.
He held the ring and asked.
Vanessa cried.
Then she said:
“Before I answer, there’s something we need to agree on.”
Daniel nearly dropped the ring.
“What?”
“Prenup.”
He blinked.
“You want a prenup?”
“Yes.”
“My lawyers were going to—”
“No. I want my own.”
“Okay.”
“And I want it to say I have no claim to Hawthorne International, your father’s estate, or inherited family assets.”
Daniel stared.
“Vanessa.”
“I need this.”
“Why?”
“Because the first time you asked me to marry you, part of me loved what came with your name.”
She wiped her eyes.
“I need both of us to know that this time, I’m choosing you.”
Daniel stood.
“And if I refuse?”
“Then I refuse the ring.”
He laughed.
Then cried.
Then hugged her.
“So is that a yes?”
“It’s a conditional yes.”
“Very romantic.”
“I learned from Miller’s Diner.”
When Daniel told me, I said nothing for several seconds.
Then:
“Make sure she has an excellent attorney.”
He laughed.
“She already hired one.”
“Even better.”
Vanessa personally paid the legal fees.
The agreement was fair.
Independent.
Clear.
The second wedding was scheduled for the following spring.
Not at Hawthorne Estate.
Vanessa chose a public botanical garden.
“Why not here?” I asked.
She looked toward the gate.
“Because I don’t want to marry a house.”
That sentence told me more than any test ever could.
Still, fate has a strange sense of humor.
Because three weeks before the wedding, the botanical garden suffered major storm damage.
The ceremony needed a new location.
Daniel looked at me.
Vanessa looked at me.
I smiled.
“The roses are available.”
And so the wedding returned to Hawthorne Estate.
May you like
But this time, the woman walking through those gates was not the same woman who had once believed a gatekeeper was beneath her.
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