Chapter 14 - The Wedding They Tried to Destroy
Dominic entered.
Elena stared.
Sophia blinked.
Then smiled.
“My boy.”
Dominic exhaled.
“You scared ten years off my life.”
Sophia had wandered from her hotel room after remembering the ring.
Dominic followed her GPS tracker.
No enemy.
No final assassin.
Just a mother trying to deliver something she had remembered after decades of forgetting.
Elena laughed until she cried.
“I think we’re traumatized.”
Dominic looked at the door.
“I was prepared to shoot it.”
“That confirms my diagnosis.”
Sophia touched Elena’s dress.
“Beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
Then she looked at Dominic.
“You chose well.”
“So did she.”
The next morning, St. Matthew’s filled quietly.
No press.
No spectacle.
Daniel attended with his arm in a sling.
Margaret sat beside him.
They were not suddenly a married couple again.
Life was not that simple.
But they were talking.
That was enough.
Arthur attended under federal supervision.
Victor was not permitted.
He sent Dominic a letter.
Dominic did not open it.
“Maybe someday,” Elena said.
“Maybe.”
Vanessa stood beside Elena.
“You ready?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“What?”
“Normal brides panic.”
Elena laughed.
The doors opened.
She walked down the aisle.
Dominic looked at her.
For all his reputation, power, wealth, and carefully controlled expression, he cried.
Not dramatically.
One tear.
Elena saw it.
She smiled.
When she reached him, he whispered, “You’re late.”
“Kidnapping disrupted the schedule.”
The priest coughed to hide a laugh.
Their vows were simple.
Dominic went first.
“I spent most of my life believing protection meant standing between danger and the people I loved. You taught me something harder. Sometimes love means standing beside someone while she faces it herself.”
Elena squeezed his hands.
“I don’t promise never to be afraid,” he continued. “I promise fear will never decide how I love you.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
Then her turn.
“I spent most of my life proving I could survive alone. I became so good at it that I sometimes forgot being loved isn't the same as being rescued.”
Dominic smiled.
“You never asked me to become smaller so you could feel bigger. Not once.”
A few people laughed softly at the unintended double meaning.
Elena smiled.
“And considering how this story started, I appreciate that sentence more than anyone.”
Dominic laughed.
“I choose you. Not because I need you to save me. Because life beside you is the life I want.”
They exchanged rings.
Sophia’s family ring became Elena’s.
The priest pronounced them husband and wife.
Dominic kissed her.
Applause filled the church.
For several minutes, nothing went wrong.
Elena considered that miraculous.
At the reception, held in the partially restored Bellamy showroom, customers and employees joined family.
The chandelier glowed.
The broken window had been replaced.
A temporary sign hung over the entrance:
EVERY BRIDE BELONGS HERE.
Daniel danced with Elena.
“I missed this.”
“You missed a lot.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get it back automatically.”
“I know.”
“But you can be here for what comes next.”
His eyes filled.
“I’d like that.”
Margaret danced with Dominic.
“What are you telling him?” Elena called.
“Secrets.”
“No more secrets!”
Everyone laughed.
Vanessa approached.
“Someone wants to see you.”
Elena stiffened.
“Can we establish whether they’re armed?”
“Progress.”
Outside stood a young woman.
Plus-size.
Nervous.
Holding a garment bag.
“Mrs. Hale?”
Elena smiled at the new name.
“Yes?”
“I saw what happened online.”
Elena’s smile faded slightly.
The woman continued.
“I’m getting married in three weeks. Four stores told me they had nothing I could try on.”
Elena looked through the glass at the damaged boutique.
“We’re technically closed.”
“I know. I just wanted to ask when you reopen.”
Elena looked at Dominic.
He knew that expression.
“The expensive idea face,” he murmured.
She ignored him.
Elena opened the door wider.
“What size?”
“Twenty-four.”
Elena smiled.
“We have six samples.”
The woman stared.
“You do?”
“Come in.”
“You’re having your wedding reception.”
“Yes.”
“I can come back.”
“No.”
Elena took her hand.
“Not for this.”
The woman entered.
Guests applauded.
She blushed.
An hour later she walked out wearing the first wedding dress she had ever been able to try on in a boutique.
She cried in front of the mirror.
So did Elena.
Dominic stood behind them.
This, Elena realized, was why Bellamy needed to survive.
Not revenge.
Not inheritance.
Not proving Marla wrong.
For this.
Near midnight, Mason approached Dominic.
His expression was serious.
“What?”
“I got a call from federal investigators.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
Dominic moved away from Elena.
“What happened?”
“They opened Arthur’s final safe.”
“And?”
“They found another trust.”
Dominic’s face tightened.
“For whom?”
Mason looked toward Elena.
“That’s the problem.”
Elena noticed them whispering.
“What?”
Dominic hesitated.
“No more secrets,” she said.
Mason handed her the photograph investigators had sent.
It showed two babies.
Both wrapped in identical yellow blankets.
Elena stared.
On the back were two names.
One was hers.
The other belonged to a child Margaret had never mentioned.
Elena looked across the room at her mother.
“Mom?”
Margaret saw the photograph.
Her champagne glass slipped from her fingers.
It shattered.
Elena approached.
“Who is the other baby?”
Margaret’s lips trembled.
Then the front doors of Bellamy Bridal opened.
A woman about Elena’s age stepped inside.
May you like
She had Elena’s eyes.
And around her neck hung an identical gold vine bracelet...
