Epilogue Out of the shadows
ROWAN
Do you believe love is chosen or inevitable?
ChaosInPurple: I think it starts as something inevitable and then becomes something you choose.
There are moments in life when you meet someone and something inside you just knows. It’s a soft recognition, like your heart has been waiting for them long before you even understood what you were waiting for.
You don’t choose that part. You don’t choose the pull, or the way your thoughts start circling back to them, or how their presence begins to feel a little too important a little too quickly.
That part just happens.
But staying? That’s a choice.
Choosing them on the days when it’s easy and on the days when it isn’t. Choosing to understand instead of walking away. Choosing to hold on when fear would be simpler.
So I don’t think it’s one or the other.
I think love finds you, and then it asks if you’re brave enough to keep it.
“Violet, I promise to spend my whole life making sure your light, your smile never dims. I promise to keep choosing you over my fear. And I promise that wherever you are—in the chaos, in the joy, in the easy, in the tough—is where I will always be.” I sign my wedding vows and watch the way her smile grows with each movement of my hands.
She is breathtaking in the white wedding gown that falls from her shoulders in soft lines before the purple begins. Small violet flowers climb from the hem upward, making the dress bloom.
She looks like every version of her I have ever loved. Violet. Purple. Mine. All of them, finally, in one place.
For a moment I forget there are other people in this room.
When it’s her turn, I wait for her voice, and as always, she surprises me. She lifts her hands and signs. No explanation, no hesitation, no apology for the people in the room who won’t understand. These words were never for them anyway. They are for us.
“Rowan, I promise to always listen, to your words and to your silence, because I know your quiet holds more love than most people’s loudest declarations.
I promise to stand beside you in every crowded room, every loud gathering, every place that has ever made you want to disappear.
I’ll be your shield, your constant, your home.
And I promise to choose you, not just today, when it’s easy, but again and again, in every ordinary moment, for the rest of our lives. ”
Each word presses against my ribs like my heart is trying to reach her and doesn’t know how to stay inside me.
When the Reverend gives me permission to kiss her, I gently take her face between my hands, the way you hold the most precious thing you have ever been given, and I pour in every bit of gratitude and happiness that is inside me right now.
I never thought I would stand at an altar.
I never thought I would find the person who could bring me here, and even if by some miracle I had, I certainly never imagined I would be this calm and unbothered by the sea of faces currently watching us.
It feels like the entire population of Cherrywood is invited today.
That is entirely because of the woman standing in front of me.
After the congratulations, the well-wishes, and the inevitable jokes from Archer and our cousins, Violet and I find our seats, right in the middle of Cherrywood Town Square.
My wedding venue is the Cherrywood Town Square.
I requested a celebration and Violet delivered exactly that.
I still don’t know how she managed to reserve the square. How does one even do that? And on a weekday. There are no cars in sight. The shops within a kilometer radius are all closed, their owners milling around as guests.
It looks less like a wedding and more like a festival. Photo booths line the edges, and the catering is arranged picnic-style despite coming from a five-star restaurant. The whole thing is lavish and completely unpretentious all at once.
And Violet did it all herself. She didn’t accept help in any way.
It is only now, watching the town turn out for her, that I fully understand what Violet means to Cherrywood. While I have spent years learning to disappear in public spaces, she has spent those same years collecting people, drawing them in the way flowers draw butterflies.
We are never alone at our table. Someone is always approaching to congratulate us, always extending a hand, always offering a warm face I don’t recognize.
Every time Violet introduces me to our guests, the name is accompanied with a story of how they met and how their presence matters in her life.
She pulls me into every conversation like she’s already decided I belong there, even when I’m not sure of it myself.
Right now, she’s sitting on my lap as she talks to the elderly couple who owns a jewelry shop in town. One of her arms loops around my neck, while the other rests against my chest, and every few sentences she turns back to check on me, to make sure I’m included.
For the first time in my life, I don’t want to disappear into the shadows. I don’t want the empty room or the early exit or the excuse waiting in my pocket. I want exactly this, exactly her, my soulmate, in the middle of everything she has always deserved.
The afternoon reaches its peak. We cut the most beautiful cake—a gift from Aunt Hope—and I’ve lost count of how many dances Violet and I have already had.
We decide to catch a breath. I make my way to the bar for champagne, ordering without any difficulty. Violet made sure every server here today is proficient in sign language. When I turn around to find her in the crowd, I catch something else entirely.
Archer is standing at the far end of the street, tucked into the narrow passage between two shops. He looms over Elodie Hart, her back against the wall, his body blocking her from the rest of the world, and then he leans forward and kisses her.
The way their hands move says everything. This is not their first time.
Fuck. When the hell did this happen?
“Rowan.”
I turn at Violet’s voice as she waves at me. “I want you to meet someone.”
The sunlight catches on the diamonds in her rings, scattering light in soft flashes, and just like that, everything else fades.
I forget about Archer. I forget about Elodie. I forget about every question that just formed in my head.
I walk toward my wife.
As always, her smile makes everything else disappear.