Chapter 18 - The Second Wedding
There were twenty-two guests.
No reporters.
No business partners.
No society photographers.
Just family and people who had earned the right to stand beside them.
The ceremony took place in the mansion garden.
Noah wore a tiny black tuxedo.
Mr. Roar wore a tiny black bow tie.
Clara walked toward Ethan without anyone giving her away.
That mattered to her.
She belonged to herself.
She was choosing him.
Ethan watched her approach.
Two years earlier, he had stood beside a grave believing every future they might have shared had vanished.
Now Clara stopped in front of him.
“You're staring.”
“I waited two years.”
“You didn't know you were waiting.”
“I know now.”
Noah loudly whispered, “Kiss her.”
Everyone laughed.
The officiant smiled.
“We haven't reached that part.”
Noah sighed dramatically.
The vows were simple.
Ethan promised truth.
Clara promised courage.
Neither promised that nothing bad would ever happen again.
They had learned better than that.
Instead, they promised that whatever happened, they would face it together.
When Ethan placed the ring on Clara's finger, his hand trembled.
She noticed.
“Scared?”
“Terrified.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because I'm terrified too.”
She smiled.
“And we're still here.”
They kissed.
Noah cheered louder than everyone.
That evening, after the guests left, Ethan found Clara standing alone in the ballroom.
The same ballroom where Noah had exposed the truth.
The marble reflected the chandeliers.
Clara looked toward the place where she had dropped the silver tray.
“Funny.”
“What?”
“I thought coming into this room that night would destroy everything.”
Ethan stood beside her.
“It did.”
She looked at him.
He smiled.
“Everything built on lies.”
Clara slipped her hand into his.
“And what survived?”
Ethan looked toward Noah, asleep across two chairs with Mr. Roar beneath his arm.
“The important part.”
Clara rested her head against Ethan.
Tomorrow would be ordinary.
May you like
For them, ordinary felt miraculous.
But before the past could finally release them, Clara had one last place she needed to visit.
