Epilogue
Aurora told me that she used to fantasize about marrying me on a beach. So that summer, we do. Of course, we’re already legally married. We have been for months.
But this is the wedding she wanted. This is the wedding she deserves.
It’s not on a beach in Taormina, but a beach in Toronto. And the dress Aurora wears – a simple silk sheath of white – is different than the one she described imagining as a child. The cake is vanilla, not lemon.
But when, with a bouquet of frangipani blooms in her hands and tears in her eyes, she tells me that it’s perfect, I believe her.
Part of that perfection came from Valentina, who planned most of this, and now beams from her place nearby on the sand.
Darragh is with her, the sun glazing his coppery hair as he stands in a dark suit, his arm around Valentina’s waist. There’s some space between them and the next couple – Deirdre and Elio, the only other attendees – because there’s still the old scar of animosity between Elio and Darragh.
But they’re playing nice for their wives, who both look so happy to be here.
And for Aurora. Who looks happiest of all.
To think that she could smile like that while marrying me still doesn’t quite make sense in my brain. There was a time when I used the threat of a wedding to make her hate me. A time when we both thought what was best was for her to be free of me.
But she says that she is free now that she is with me.
At night, when I fuck her so hard it almost hurts us both when we come.
In the morning, when we exist together in the silence.
On random afternoons, when she kisses me just for the hell of it.
“I love you,” she says. Over and over again. “And I’m free.”
There’s no minister today. We don’t need it.
But I do have rings this time.
Matching gold bands, hers a little thinner than mine, that I fish from my suit’s pocket. She must not expect that, because she appears startled by the sight of them. And when she sees the single word engraved on each band, her eyes shimmer with new tears.
I don’t have vows to recite today. I’ve already told her all my truths. Made her my promises. Killed for her.
Changed for her.
So instead, I slide her ring onto her finger, and simply say the engraving aloud.
“Always.”
Thank you so much for reading Curse and Aurora’s story.