Page 87 of Mia

“No matter how many times I’ve pushed you away. No matter how many times I’ve spoken to you in ways you should never speak to the person you love, you’ve always stood with me, background or forefront. I. . . I was afraid to love you. I thought loving you would eventually make me weak. Make me a lesser version of myself. I know now that I was wrong.

“Loving you means I have to be better not only for myself, but to love you the way you deserve.” She reached out and touched my face. I grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. “You are so deserving, Titan. You’ve taken care of me in ways that I foolishly didn’t acknowledge or appreciate. You’ve never tried to change me, even though I know I’m a lot to handle. I am so sorry that I wanted to keep you a secret. Never again.”

She pecked my lips. “Never. Again. You deserve for me to love you correctly and out loud, and I vow to do that every day for the rest of our days. I commit myself to you. To our marriage.” She looked over at Bleu in her father’s arms and smiled. “To Bleu, because that’s our baby.” She looked back to me. “I commit to being a better person in memory of Eden because she deserves the best version of her parents when we get to be with her again.

“I want her to be proud of us. I want our families to see that we can be more than the toxic behavior we exhibit.” She turned to our families. “Make no mistake, I’m still gonna act a fool about this man, just not with him.”

“I know that’s right!” Dinah yelled, causing us to laugh.

Mia turned back to me. “I love you, Titan Ahmad DeLuca. You’ll never have to beg me to say or show that again.”

She rushed into my arms, wrapping hers tightly around my neck as I wrapped mine around her waist and buried my face in her neck. I could hear the sniffles in the crowd, and when I looked out, every woman in attendance was dabbing her eyes. My mother sat next to Ms. Maddie, both of them with their hands over their hearts. Pops grabbed her hand while a nigga I didn’t know grabbed Ms. Maddie’s.

As we released each other, I reached into my pocket and retrieved the new wedding ring I bought her. Jakobi came in clutch. When I told him I needed a custom ring, he sat down and sketched out my vision, promising to get right on it so it would be ready in time for today.

The wedding band was nothing but diamonds. Inside was engraved with Eden’s name and her footprints. The ring itself was a five-carat radiant-cut diamond ring. Sixteen diamonds made the band of the ring, while the base that held the big diamond was made of diamonds as well. I dropped a big ass bag on this shit and tipped him handsomely for the rush order.

When I opened the box to present it to my wife, she jumped back.

“Daaaaamn!” she exclaimed, making everybody laugh. She pointed at the ring with a huge grin. “That’s mine?”

“All for you, mamas.”

She started dancing as she wiggled her fingers in my face. “Put it on me, daddy.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I slipped her current set off and put it in my pocket. I paused in slipping the ring on to show her the inside. She poked her lip out as she looked up at me.

“We’ll never forget her,” I said softly.

She shook her head. “Never.”

I slipped the ring on her finger.

Senior raised the mic to his lips. “Well, I don’t think anything else needs to be said,” he said, sounding all choked up. “Go on and kiss your bride, son. Remember, her father is standing right here.”

I smirked. “No disrespect, Pops, but I ain’t trying to hear none of that. Come here, woman.”

I grabbed Mia by her waist and yanked her to me, crashing my lips into hers. Her girls cheered and whistled as we shared one of the most passion filled, yet nasty kisses to date. Bleu was in the background barking right along with the cheers and applause.

When we parted ways, she immediately jumped into Mia’s arms, not giving a damn if she hit the floor in the process.

“Are you happy for Mommy and Daddy?” Mia asked, hugging her.

“She’s just happy to be here,” I said, scratching behind her ears.

Mia looked up at me with a wide smile. “Thank you for this. This was absolutely beautiful.”

“Anything for you, mamas.”

We leaned into each other and shared a kiss.

“You ready to party?” I asked.

“Hell yeah.”

I felt like I could finally breathe now that things had come full circle. Tonight did exactly what I intended it to do. Life had broken us down in the worst way, and we had to face some hard truths about ourselves. Now that we were finally on the same page, it was time to get to business.

We were coming for everything a muthafucka owed us.