All waiting silently, smiling, already knowing.
I froze as soon as we stepped off the elevator, in utter disbelief. My breath left me in one violent exhale.
“Callum,” I whispered, my voice breaking instantly as I took it all in. “You… you planned this?”
He stepped behind me, his arms sliding around my waist, chin resting on my shoulder as he pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Of course I did.”
Tears hit my lashes so fast I couldn’t blink them away. “Why?” I managed, my voice trembling.
His grip tightened—gentle, protective, and entirely his. “Because you didn’t get it last year,” he murmured. “Because I know how important it is to us—toyou—to celebrate this properly. Because of all the conversations about the receptions you liked, or dresses you’d wear, or little details that made you smile but you said were stupid and silly, I wrote them down.”
My hand flew to my mouth.
He turned me gently in his arms, blue eyes soft and steady. “I did this,” he whispered, “because you’re my wife. And because last night wasn’t the only dream you fulfilled. I wanted to give you this one too. The celebration you deserve. The one you never got.”
Tears streamed freely down my cheeks.
“And Auri, mon amour?” He brushed a thumb beneath my eye, his forehead dipping to mine. “This isn’t about vows or promises. We already made those. This is just me showing you that I remember.”
My knees almost gave out. He caught me instantly, pulling me against him as I shook—overwhelmed, undone, completely ruined in the most beautiful way.
“You remembered all of this?” I whispered, sobbing into his chest.
“Every word,” he said softly. “Everything you ever said in passing. Everything you never thought I’d hear.”
I looked past him then, to the terrace blooming with pink, to the skyline glowing like liquid gold, to the people who loved us most waiting to celebrate the woman I had become.
“And you did all of it for me?”
His smile broke my heart open. “Always.”
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his neck as the world blurred around us.
This wasn’t silver or scarlet. This wasn’t podiums or trophies. This wasn’t a grid or a finish line.
This was love.
This was us.
Since Spa. Since always. Since the beginning.
And as he held me against the sky, Abu Dhabi glowing beneath our feet, I knew with perfect, devastating clarity, I loved him more today than the day before.
And tomorrow I would love him more still.
Because forever wasn’t a vow—it was achoice.
One we made every single day.
And he had chosen me again.
Just like I would always choose him.
