Epilogue Three
DANIEL
A few years later
The sounds of cellos played in the background as Elliot and I watched our three-year-old son, Miles, walking down the aisle, holding our rings.
Dressed in a little black tux, he looked absolutely adorable, even more so when he suddenly stopped walking only to look around at the rest of our guests.
His big blue eyes, the same as my beloved’s, glinted right before his lips quivered and he burst out in tears.
“Papa,” he cried, while the guests, including us, let out a collective aww. It might not be politically correct to smile at your crying kid, but this moment was simply too cute.
Elliot quickly left my side, rushing over to our Miles. I watched in awe as he bent down on one knee in front of him and brushed Miles’s tousled black hair away from his crying little face before whispering something in his ear. The two then turned to look at me, and ugh, my poor heart.
Even though I’d once claimed to never want any more children, in the end, it was I who suggested we have a child together.
Looking at them now, I couldn’t be happier and help but think of all the bright changes this child had caused in our lives.
Not only did he add so much joy to our everyday, he also brought out a whole new side to my Elliot, who, just as I always knew he’d be, was an incredible dad.
He was still the same young man I’d fallen for, only so much more.
It also helped that, due to fatherhood, he’d finally quit smoking altogether.
Which was a wonder on its own, considering his love for that bad habit.
Moving a hand over his chubby cheek, Miles sniffed his button nose, then took Elliot’s hand to the sound of our guests clapping.
And me? I stood there, my hands crossed before me, as I watched the love of my life walking down the aisle with our son.
Grateful beyond words and with my heart filled with an endless amount of love, I did my best to fight the tears threatening to come out.
One quick glance at my daughter, who cheered me on from the front row, helped me calm down the nerves, and I straightened, waiting for Miles and Elliot to arrive.
“Why the tears, Bunny?” I asked Miles once the two reached me, and I ruffled his soft hair. Ignoring me, Miles moved to hug Elliot’s leg, clearly not interested in this wedding.
Oh well.
“He’s just a bit scared of the crowd,” Elliot kindly explained with a soft smile. “Mon lapin, would you give Papa the rings?”
With his head shoved in Elliot’s leg, Miles half glanced to look at us before giving my soon-to-be husband the small box that had the rings inside.
“Thank you, mon lapin,” Elliot told him in a voice so soft I didn’t even know it existed until Miles was born.
Straightening up, Elliot handed the box to Vito, who waited patiently by our side this whole time.
When same-sex marriage finally became legal here, I couldn’t wait and decided to turn my promise to marry Elliot into a reality.
And while we both had different visions of how this wedding should look, there was one thing we both agreed on, and that was that Vito should be the person to marry us.
Why? Probably because he was the first person to learn about us and, more importantly, accept us.
“Well, if that is not adorable, I don’t know what is,” Vito said, his voice bursting with life as always. “But shall we move on? You know, before we lose the sunset.” He winked, tilting his head in the direction of the ocean behind us.
Needless to say, we ended up with Elliot’s vision of a wedding, in a beautiful venue on the coast of California.
“Yes, please,” I said, holding stares with Elliot, who looked as beautiful as the day we met.
“And the kid, does he stay?” Vito asked, and Elliot answered with a quick oui.
These two have been inseparable since the day Miles was born.
“Very well, then.” Fixing his tie, Vito cleared his throat and began speaking about how love brought us here today and all that romantic crap I couldn’t stand.
What could I say? Despite living in LA the last few years, I was still a New Yorker at heart.
And as Vito went on talking, I drifted away in my thoughts.
Who would have believed that the young man I’d met by accident on one rainy day would become my life partner?
My family. The man I loved with every fiber of my being.
Ha, I guess romance had crept up on me.
What was once an unthinkable dream became my reality, which proved to be better by the day.
Looking into Elliot’s sapphire eyes now, I remembered the first kiss we shared, the first hug, the first confession.
There was also the heartache and hardships we’d dealt with until this very day, but nothing could come between us.
Not his struggle with eating disorders, which he overcame daily, and also not my previous family, whom I hadn’t spoken to since that day.
From what I’d heard, Father was finally sued for sexual harassment, not long after we moved to California.
I was glad we ditched that storm. Mother tried to contact me after Dad lost most of his fortune paying settlements to the countless young women he’d hurt, but I rejected her as she wasn’t genuine, nor was she worthy of being a part of Elliot's and my life.
The same went for my siblings, who never even tried to reach out.
But all of that meant nothing to me as I stood before Elliot, my French prince, and our son, our very own miracle.
“Do you, Elliot Dufort, take Daniel Williams to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
A smile I’d never get enough of spread on Elliot’s lips as he took my hands and held them tight.
“I do,” he said, bringing tears to my eyes.
“And do you, Daniel Williams, take Elliot Dufort to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do you part?”
And as I let the question seep in, I looked into Elliot’s eyes.
My Blue Gold.
“I do.”