“No.”
The way she stared at the box made me think it might explode.
“But… we’re already married.”
“I’m aware, but I never asked.”
That stopped her.
The humor faded from her face. She looked at me carefully now. “What do you mean?”
I opened the box. The diamond instantly caught the lantern light. Her breath caught.
“When we got married,” I said, “it was an arrangement. A deal that benefited both of us.”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
“But somewhere along the way,” I continued, “it stopped feeling like a deal. I stopped thinking of you as the woman I married for convenience,” I said quietly. "And started thinking of you as the woman I can’t imagine living without.”
Her hand slowly covered her mouth.
“I know our marriage started in an unusual way,” I said. “But nothing about how I feel about you is unusual anymore. We chose to enter this agreement, and not without any pretense, I'm hoping you'll choose me again. Will you marry me?”
For a moment, she didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Then her eyes filled with tears.
“You absolute idiot,” she whispered.
My stomach dropped. “That doesn’t sound promising.”
She laughed through the tears. “You think after everything we’ve been through, I was going to say no?”
Relief hit me like a tidal wave. “So that’s a yes?”
She grabbed my collar and pulled me down into a kiss. “Yes.”
Her voice was breathless when she pulled back. “I'll marry you.”
I slid the ring onto her finger. She stared at it for a second before laughing softly. “I should have known what you were up to when you asked to borrow my ring.”
A loud cheer exploded from behind the hedges.
Vani jumped. “What was that?”
Suddenly, leaves rustled everywhere. Theo stepped out first, clapping. “Finally! I've been in that bush for an hour.” Vani's mother followed him, wiping her eyes. Both families began emerging from the hedges like witnesses to a very expensive wildlife documentary.
Vani stared at them in disbelief.
“You were hiding in bushes?”
Emily grinned. “For an hour.”
Her jaw dropped. “An hour?”
“Had to make sure you said yes,” Serena added, shrugging.
Vani turned slowly toward me. “You planned this?”
“In my defense, that part was Theo's idea.”
