William rose slowly, lifting Lily with him.
He looked at Violet, truly looked, and felt the world settle beneath his feet for the first time in years.
She stepped closer, brushing gentle fingers through Lily’s curls before lifting her hand to William’s cheek.
“He did come back,” she whispered to their daughter, her voice breaking with tenderness.
“And I’m so… so glad he did.”
Her eyes lifted, green and bright, full of a love he thought he’d lost forever.
“I never stopped wanting this,” she whispered.
“Wanting you. Loving you. I was only… afraid.”
He covered her hand with his own where it rested against his cheek.
“Then I’ll spend the rest of my life proving there’s nothing left to fear.”
Her breath shuddered out of her.
She nodded and stepped into him, into them, her arm curling around Lily and him at once.
And for the first time in five years,
their family stood whole.
Epilogue I
The oak tree looked exactly the same.
That was Violet’s first thought as she stepped onto the gentle rise of Ashford Manor’s meadow, her arm looped through her father’s. The same broad branches stretching toward the sky. The same dappled shade. The same soft hush of wind whispering through its leaves.
But she was not the same girl who had once stood beneath it.
Her breath trembled as they slowed. Summer petals lay scattered across the grass, and a garland of white heather and pale violets had been woven around the lowest bough—simple and lovely, the tender touches of her mother and Lily written in every bloom.
Ahead, Lily stood beside her grandmother, clutching her small bouquet with both hands, curls bobbing as she tried her best not to bounce with excitement.
And beneath the oak, waiting for her as though he had stepped out of memory and into this moment for her alone—
William.
He wore no elaborate coat, no ceremonial sash. Just a dark waistcoat, his sleeves rolled neatly to his forearms, dressed with the same simplicity they had once dreamed of beneath these branches. And when he saw her, her cream gown simple and beautifully cut, his expression softened into something she had once believed she would never touch again.
Home.
Love.
Absolute devotion.
Violet’s heart gave a small, helpless ache.
Her father pressed a kiss to her temple.
“You deserve this happiness, my girl.”
She swallowed hard. “I know.”
