"Hi," I whisper.
"Hi," he whispers back. "You're so beautiful I forgot how to breathe."
"That's going to make the vows difficult."
He laughs quietly, squeezes my hand, and we turn to face the officiant together.
The ceremony passes in a blur.
Words about love and commitment and partnership. Readings from poems I barely hear because I'm too focused on Enzo's hand in mine, on the way his thumb is moving in small circles on my skin, on the fact that this is real, this is happening, this is my life.
Then it's time for vows.
Enzo goes first.
He pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket and unfolds it with hands that shake slightly, and when he starts reading his voice is steady but thick with emotion.
"Isabella," he says. "Almost five years ago I stood on a porch and told you the cruelest thing I've ever said to another person because I was too much of a coward to admit what I actually felt. I've regretted that moment every day since. But I don't regret where it led us. Because every hard thing we went through, every separation, every fight, every moment of pain brought us here. To this. To you in a white dress looking at me like I'm worth something. Like I'm worth everything."
He takes a breath.
"I promise to love you for the rest of my life. I promise to protect you, to support you, to be the person you can count on when everything else falls apart. I promise to never lie to you again, to never hide what I'm feeling, to never let fear make me cruel." His voice breaks slightly. "And I promise that every single day I will work to deserve you. To be the man you see when you look at me like that."
He folds the paper and looks at me directly.
"You're everything, Isabella. You've always been everything."
I'm crying openly now, tears running down my face, and I don't care about my makeup or the two hundred people watching or anything except him.
My turn.
I don't have paper. I didn't write anything down because I knew I wouldn't be able to read it without falling apart.
So I just speak from my heart.
"Enzo," I say, and my voice shakes but holds. "When I was eighteen I told you I loved you and you broke my heart. And I hated you for it. For years I hated you for it. But somewhere along the way the hate turned back into love and I realized something—you broke my heart because you were trying to protect me. You were doing what you thought was right even though it destroyed you too."
I squeeze his hands.
"And then, when I needed you most, when I was trapped in the worst place I've ever been, you came for me. You walked into that basement and you saved me again and you kept every promise you've ever made to me." I'm smiling through tears now. "So I'm making you a promise back. I promise to love you even when you're being impossible. I promise to call you out when you're being too controlled and too careful. I promise to be your partner in everything—in this life, in this family, in whatever comes next."
I reach up and wipe a tear from his cheek that I didn't even see fall.
"And I promise that you will never have to earn me. You already have me. You've always had me. Years ago, I was already yours. I just had to wait for you to be ready to be mine."
The officiant is saying something about rings and I barely register it because Enzo is looking at me with such raw emotion that I can barely stand it.
Rafael hands him a ring.
Enzo slides it onto my finger, his hands steady now, and says: "With this ring, I thee wed."
Bianca hands me Enzo's ring.
I slide it onto his finger and repeat: "With this ring, I thee wed."
"By the power vested in me," the officiant says, "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Enzo doesn't wait.
