“I think it will take some time...before I remember everything. Some memories are still fuzzy—”
“I asked you something, when you first woke up at the hospital.”
Oh!
“If it’s about marrying you, then of course—”
“I asked if you can find it your heart to forgive me...and give me the chance to love you and make it up to you.”
Oh, this man is absolutely the sweetest!
“I know I messed up,” he says grimly. “And I can’t even promise not to mess up again. But what I can promise is that I will love you for the rest—”
I throw myself into his arms.
Just launch myself at him like something out of a drama, arms around his neck, face buried in his shoulder, probably wrinkling my wedding dress beyond all repair and not caring even a little bit.
“I love you!”
His arms come around me. Tight. Fierce. Like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
“I love you,” I say again, because I can, because it’s true, because the words taste like honey and freedom and everything I thought I’d lost. “I love you and I forgive you, and no matter which world we end up in, I’ll always love you—”
I think I’m rambling, and I don’t know if I can stop.
“Always choose you, always marry—”
And it seems he’s realized this as well, with his hands cupping my face, his mouth cutting the rest of my words as his lips cover mine—
His kiss makes everything inside of me still.
His kiss makes me feel I’m safe. I’m loved. And I’ve finally found where I belong.
Epilogue
IT’S THE SAME CAVERNfor our second wedding, but this time, it’s Pastor Jim who marries us, and unlike before, there are more people in the crowd that I know, and all of them makes my heart feel so, so full.
My mom Cristine is dabbing her eyes like always. Abigail is with her father, and they both look so happy. There’s everyone from home, too. Mrs. Lyme. Cook Arlene. All the maids and the guards. The other Mafia Kings. And Celine, who winks at me as she catches my bridal bouquet, which causes her guardian to betray his emotions for the very first time with the slightest of winces.
I didn’t think life could get any better after this...except it does.
I’m not sure how this is even possible, but when Devyn says he’s prepared something special for our honeymoon—
“This can’t be true,” I whisper.
“It is.”
“I can’t believe—oww!”
My beloved Mafia King of the South has just flicked me on the forehead, and it stings!
“Do you believe it now?” he drawls. “Or would you like me to do it again—”
“I believe you,” I say hastily.
And I do, really.
99% of me knows this is real, in the only way that people marked by Hewhay’s can experience, but...the 1% of me is just...
