Chapter 18 - The Second Wedding
Daniel didn’t propose.
Not exactly.
One evening he placed their old wedding rings on the kitchen table.
Sophie stared.
“I kept yours.”
She picked it up.
The inside was engraved.
Always home.
She cried.
Daniel took her hand.
“I don’t want to recreate what we had.”
“Good.”
“I want what we have now.”
Sophie smiled.
“So what are you asking?”
“I’m asking whether you want to choose me again.”
She looked at Noah, who was pretending not to listen from the hallway.
Then back at Daniel.
“Yes.”
They held the ceremony in the backyard.
No expensive venue.
No crowd.
Rachel’s mother attended.
Alvarez attended.
Mrs. Harper attended.
Noah carried the rings.
Sophie wore a simple cream dress.
Daniel wore the same watch she had given him before their first wedding.
When it was time for vows, Sophie spoke first.
“I used to believe coming home meant returning to the place you left.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I was wrong. Home is the place where you are allowed to become someone new and are still loved.”
Daniel took both her hands.
“I buried you once.”
Guests went silent.
“And part of me was buried with you. When you came back, I thought getting you back would make everything the way it was.”
He smiled.
“But you taught me something better.”
Sophie whispered, “What?”
“We didn’t need the life we lost.”
He squeezed her hands.
“We needed the chance to build another one.”
Noah loudly sniffed.
Everyone laughed.
Daniel and Sophie kissed.
Above them, the maple leaves moved softly in the summer wind.
For once, there was no one watching from a black SUV.
No locked door.
No smoke.
No secret waiting to destroy them.
Only family.
Yet later that evening, Noah asked Sophie one final question.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, little bear?”
“Can we go to the diner tomorrow?”
“Why?”
He smiled.
“I want blueberry muffins.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
May you like
They both laughed.
And the next morning, they returned to the place where the impossible had begun.
