But here I was, binding myself to a woman who despised me, in a ceremony that felt more like conquest than commitment.
Vartan shifted, drawing my attention. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else—and when our eyes met, I saw the question in his gaze:Is it too late to stop this?
I looked away.
"Do you, Vasily Mikhailovich Chernov, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do." The words came out steady, certain. Whatever doubts I harbored, they had no place here.
"And do you, Gabrielle Marie Blanchard, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
Silence.
She stood frozen beside me, her hands trembling slightly at her sides. The judge waited. The seconds stretched, elastic with tension.
"Gabrielle," I said softly.
Nothing.
I turned to face her, and for the first time, she looked at me. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears, her jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles straining.
She wasn't going to speak. I'd known she wouldn't—had prepared for this moment even while hoping it wouldn't come.
"I'll speak for her," I said.
Semyon made a small sound—surprise or protest, quickly stifled. Vartan's expression darkened. But Judge Antonov simply nodded, having been briefed on the possibility.
I turned to face her fully, taking her hands in mine. She flinched at the contact but didn't pull away—perhaps too exhausted to fight, perhaps saving her resistance for a battle she could win.
"I do," I said, and my voice came out rougher than I'd intended. "On her behalf, I do."
It should have felt like victory. Like claiming what was mine.
Instead, it felt like reaching into her chest and taking something precious—something that should have been given freely, that I was stealing because I couldn't bear to live without it.
"I vow to protect you," I continued, the words spilling out before I could stop them—not the standard vows, but something else, something true. "I vow to keep you safe from every threat, every danger, every shadow that would do you harm. I vow that no one will ever hurt you while I draw breath."
Her eyes widened. This wasn't what she'd expected—wasn't the cold, transactional ceremony she'd braced herself for.
"I vow to give you everything you need. Comfort, security, a life beyond anything you've imagined." My voice dropped, intimate despite our audience. "And I vow to wait. However long it takes. For you to see me as something other than a monster."
A tear slipped down her cheek. She didn't wipe it away.
"I know you don't believe me," I said quietly. "I know you think this is just another cage. But I meant what I said, Gabrielle.Every word. And one day—maybe not soon, maybe not for years—you'll understand why I couldn't let you go."
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the wind seemed to still.
Then Judge Antonov cleared his throat. "The rings, please."
Semyon stepped forward, producing the rings from his pocket. I took the smaller one—platinum, set with a single diamond that caught the light like captured fire—and turned back to Gabrielle.
Her hand was trembling as I lifted it. I slid the ring onto her finger slowly, watching it settle into place like it had always belonged there.
My ring on her hand. My claim made visible.
Something shifted in her expression as she looked down at it—not acceptance, not yet, but a recognition that this was real. That whatever came next, she was bound to me now in the eyes of the law and the world.
"By the power vested in me," Judge Antonov intoned, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
