Then she lifted her hand, revealing my ring between two fingers, and I almost forgot how to stand upright.
I've seen beautiful things in my life. Cars worth millions, cities carved into mountainsides, the woman standing in front of me now the most beautiful of them all.
But nothing—nothing—had stolen the breath from my lungs like this ring. Because she had picked it herself, possibly aided in the design, because the band wasn’t simple or understated or traditional by any means.
It was deliberate, unique, and crafted with a story I hadn’t heard yet. Platinum caught the sunlight first. Cool, clean, eternal. A foundation built to last. Then the gold in the middle, gleaming warmly, a carved band of chevrons around the entire ring, like a trail of motion. The grooves were shallow but sharp, tapering toward a disruption in the flow, a curve that looked devastatingly familiar at first glance.
Not ornamental. Not random. It looked… alive. Like movement immortalized.
The pattern carried a whisper of a track, yes, but this was more than that. It was designed as devotion. Direction as declaration. Every line leading somewhere—back to her, back to us.
Tiny diamonds rimmed the edges in an unbroken circle, each one catching the light like a spark before it faded. Not ostentatious, but infinite. A circuit of brilliance that mirrored the pavé on her engagement ring, two halos orbiting each other endlessly.
The ring didn’t look engineered. It looked breathed into being. Like how she breathed life into me.
My eyes drifted back to the curve—the rise cutting through the center—and something inside me tilted. It was Eau Rouge. Raidillon.
My corner. My favorite track. My beginning, even if I hadn’t always known the reason.
At the apex of that line sat three rubies. Three perfect, burning points of red.
I didn’t yet understand the full meaning of the ring, but my body knew before my mind caught up. Itcalledto something in me—instinct before intellect.
The first ruby burned for the moment I first saw her, a flash of brilliance that re-wired everything I thought I knew about hunger and hope. The second for the time I almost lost her,when my crash and her miscarriage and the realities of loss taught me what fear really was. And the third for every day she chose me, not as a rival or a ghost, but as the woman I would follow into forever.
Heat. Recognition. Reverence.
I looked up at her because I couldn’t not.
Auri was already smiling at me in that way she reserves for fragile things. For miracles she’s afraid to touch too hard.
“There’s a story behind this ring,” she murmured, voice trembling just enough for me to feel it in my chest. “One I can’t wait to share with you later.”
Later.
There was more. I could feel it—the confirmation of intention braided into every curve of gold and platinum. Every detail a love letter written in a language only we would ever understand.
My heart stumbled, tumbled, tried to catch itself and failed. I had to glance away from her for a second just to steady the ground beneath me.
Because this ring wasn’t just a piece of jewelry. It wasn’t a symbol. It wasus.Past, present, and everything still ahead, etched into metal like a map I hadn’t learned to read yet.
This wasn't a ceremony anymore. It was a heartbeat.
Two trembling hands.
Two bands of metal catching light.
Two lives tying themselves together.
“Callum,” Colette said, forcing me back into the moment, “as you place this ring, repeat after me.”
I turned the platinum band between my fingers, the metal warm from my skin.
“With this ring,” she said.
I breathed it out as I reached for Auri’s left hand. “With this ring.”
“I seal the vows I’ve spoken and all the promises still unspoken.”
