Ysis
It had a ring to it. A heavy one, literally and figuratively. Every time I looked down at my left hand, my stomach still flipped a little seeing that enormous diamond staring back at me like proof that my life had officially spun clean off its axis.
No one could have paid me any amount of money to believe I was actually going to marry Kade Myles.
Especially not less than thirty days after his proposal.
But somehow, between me, Nia, a wedding planner so elite she probably organized celebrity unions in her sleep, and Kade throwing around enough money to make the economy nervous, we pulled it together beautifully.
Glancing down at my rings again, my thumb brushed across the wedding band as memories from that day came flooding back so vivid it almost stole the air from my lungs all over again.
The morning after we got back from Miami had felt surreal from the moment I opened my eyes.
Everything moved so fast afterward that parts of it still felt dreamlike in hindsight, but the wedding itself?
Baby, that night was permanently tattooed into my soul.
I stood in front of the mirror trying not to cry my lashes off while Nia and the stylist fluttered around me fixing tiny details I couldn’t even focus on anymore.
The closer it got to ceremony time, the harder my heart pounded.
Not because I was unsure, because baby, I knew who I was about to marry.
If anything, that was the problem. I loved that man so much it terrified me sometimes. And Kade loved even harder.
Dangerously hard.
The kind of love that consumed rooms, shifted atmospheres, and made itself known whether people liked it or not.
Sometimes I still caught myself staring at him trying to understand how we even got here.
How the same man who once stressed me out inside office hallways and had me crying in frustration after work became the one person I trusted most with my heart.
I turned back toward the mirror, allowing myself to take in the woman staring back at me instead of the man standing behind her. Until now, I'd been too distracted by Kade to really see what everyone else had been fussing over.
Seeing myself fully dressed for the first time, the air got caught in my throat.
My gown had been custom-made by Vera Wang herself to accommodate my growing stomach.
The diamond-studded strapless bodice held the girls up beautifully and the sculpted fit of the dress hugged every single curve pregnancy had blessed me with, pooling elegantly at my feet like liquid silver.
The gown clung to my body so perfect; it felt painted on me instead of sewn together.
Soft crystals and intricate beadwork shimmered under the lights every time I moved, cascading down the fabric like somebody hand-placed stars against my skin.
The corset structure cinched me in, still cradling my stomach, and made room for the twins without losing an ounce of the dress’s sex appeal.
That part mattered to me more than people understood.
I didn’t want to disappear inside motherhood before I even made it down the aisle.
I still wanted to feel beautiful. Desired.
Like myself. And baby this dress gave everything it was supposed to.
Even the veil felt unreal. Long, sheer, delicate, dusted with shimmer so subtle it looked like light was following me around the room itself.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t look like a girl still trying to survive her trauma.I looked like a woman who’d be chosen.
Being loved loud, correctly and intentionally.
And despite everything me and Kade had survived to get here, that man still managed to give me the kind of wedding girls dream about when they’re little—the kind I never even allowed myself to fantasize about because life taught me early not to expect beautiful things to last. But standing here in this dress, about to become Mrs. Myles, for once...
beautiful didn’t feel temporary anymore.
“You trying not to cry?” Nia asked from behind me, adjusting the train. I laughed shakily, blinking upward before my tears could ruin thousands of dollar’s worth of makeup.
“Trying being the key word.”
“Girl,” she smiled through glossy eyes of her own. “You look unreal.” The room fell quiet for a second after that.
Everybody standing there realizing this moment was bigger than makeup, dresses, flowers, and decorations.
Bigger than social media pictures and expensive centerpieces.
This was healing happening in real time.
This was me, a girl who spent most of her life feeling abandoned, overlooked, and unwanted, about to walk down an aisle toward a man who loved me loud enough to silence every insecurity I ever carried.
“Alright, time for first look photos. You ready?” Nia secured the jeweled headpiece at the crown of my updo, adjusting the delicate strands until they sat perfectly against my veil.
“Kayla and them about ready to take my head off because I won’t let them in here.” She laughed, stepping back to admire her work. I took a breath, pressing my hand against my stomach, trying to steady the emotions threatening to climb into my throat all over again.
“Ready,” I nodded.
“Let’s go.”
The second those doors opened, my heart thundered so hard I thought the twins might’ve felt it too.
A million thoughts raced through my head at once as we made our way down the private hallway toward the venue entrance.
Here I was about to marry the love of my life without my mother present and without a father to walk me down the aisle.
That ache sat deep in my chest no matter how hard I tried to focus on everything beautiful surrounding me.
Learning the truth about my family had shattered pieces of me I still wasn’t sure how to fully put back together.
But there was nothing I could do about the past now.
Nothing that could rewrite abandonment, erase trauma, or fix generations of brokenness.
All I had was the future, so that’s what I chose to focus on. This was my day, and in a world that had already taken so much from me, I refused to let pain rob me of this too.The moment we stepped out into the venue itself, the air completely left my lungs.
Kade had transformed one of the most exclusive private estates in Memphis into something that looked heaven-sent.
The property sat along the Mississippi River wrapped in thousands of soft candlelit fixtures, towering white floral installations so massive they looked sculpted instead of arranged.
Crystal chandeliers hung from transparent ceiling structures built specifically for the ceremony, catching the evening sunset and throwing prisms of light across everything around us.
White orchids, roses, and cascading wisteria dripped from gold archways as violinists played somewhere in the distance. The marble aisle itself stretched across a reflective glass runway built over water, making it appear as if guests would literally be watching me walk on air.
Everywhere I looked screamed luxury, elegance, and love so intentional it made my chest hurt. My girls squealed the second they saw me fully dressed standing beneath all that beauty.
“Oh my GODDDDD!”
“Bitch!”
“You look insane!”
Tears filled their eyes as they rushed toward me trying hard not to ruin my dress or makeup in the process.
Meanwhile, I was fighting like hell not to break down myself.
We took group photos underneath the floral archways, photographers barked directions and camera flashes went off nonstop around us.
Everybody kept fussing over my train, fixing tiny pieces of my veil every few seconds, but I barely heard any of it anymore.
Because all I could think about was him.
The moment finally came when the girls lifted my train and started walking me toward the garden where Kade waited for our first look.
My hands started sweating as butterflies attacked my stomach so violently, I almost turned around and ran the other direction.
When I saw him standing there with his back turned in his custom black Tom Ford tuxedo, broad shoulders tense and hands clasped tight in front of him, emotion clogged my throat instantly.
Even from behind, I could tell that man was nervous.
“I can feel you behind me, so tap me already, troublemaker,” his voice quivered.
Just hearing that tiny crack in his composure made tears sting my eyes.
Placing my hand against his shoulder, I barely had time to breathe before he turned around.
The way that man looked at me, I will never recover from it for as long as I live.
Kade’s entire face fell apart the second his eyes landed on me—mouth open, eyes watering, like his brain had short-circuited.
It was just us. His eyes traveled over every inch of me before he grabbed my hand and kissed it like he was scared I’d disappear if he moved too fast.
“Damn, this my wife standing in front of me.” I laughed through my tears.
“No seriously,” he continued, his own voice breaking now as he stared at me like I hung the damn moon itself. “Ysis...baby, you look so beautiful, it’s actually making me mad at God for creating other people with eyesight.” That made me laugh harder, crying at the same time.
“I’m dead serious,” he sniffed, swiping at his eyes before the cameras caught too much. “Cause now I gotta spend the rest of my life fighting niggas for looking at you.”
“You are ridiculous.”
“And obsessed with you.” He stepped closer, resting one hand against my stomach.
“Look at you. Carrying my babies, looking like this, about to become my wife...” He shook his head. “Baby, if I die tomorrow, just know I already lived the best day of my life today.”
That did it. I instantly broke down crying as he pulled me into his arms carefully, so we didn’t ruin my dress.