Chapter 18 - Another Altar
Three years after I walked away from Daniel Mercer, I stood inside another chapel.
Smaller.
Sunlight streamed through plain windows.
My father waited beside me.
Sophie adjusted my sleeve.
Jonathan sat with Anna and Lily.
Maya was there.
Rebecca too.
There were forty-three guests.
No reporters.
No livestream.
No corporate families negotiating alliances.
Ethan waited at the front.
Before we entered, my father looked at me.
“You sure?”
I smiled.
The question mattered.
Not Are you nervous?
Not Do you know how lucky you are?
Are you sure?
“Yes.”
He kissed my forehead.
“Then let's go.”
I walked toward Ethan.
He didn't reach for my hand until I offered it.
During our vows, he said:
“I don't promise to complete you, because you were complete before I arrived. I promise to walk beside you for as long as we both choose this life.”
My eyes filled with tears.
Three years earlier, another man had stood at an altar and told me I belonged to him.
This man promised the opposite.
Freedom.
Partnership.
Choice.
When the ceremony ended, nobody applauded because a secret had been exposed.
They applauded because something good had begun.
But there was still one place I needed to visit before I could finally close the story.
May you like
And the next morning, I drove there alone.
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