Epilogue Harper #2
“Thank you all for coming,” Orion said into the mic, and a crowd of fifty or so stared back at us—at me, it seemed—smiling and glowing.
“The tour was amazing and I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.
A wee bit of background, I have a very complicated case of dyslexia.
Ten years ago, a team of specialists helped me unravel its twists and turns and found proper medication that works for me.
Until then, I didn’t think it would be possible for me to go out into the world and do what I do.
To have so many talented musicians surrounding me and counting on me to not cock it all up. ”
A smattering of warm laughter from the crowd.
“But I am here, and it’s because of this woman, standing at my side.”
I shook my head immediately, but Orion’s hand tightened on mine.
“I had the help of an incredible teacher, but Harper…she saw me when no one else did. She saw through my jokes, my deflections, and my excessive amount of charisma.”
More laughter, but Orion’s tone grew serious. His voice thick with emotion.
“She helped unlock the chains around my heart so that I can play the way that I do. My love for her is why I can play the way that I do. But she doesn’t like being fussed over.
She doesn’t like attention or being called inspiring.
” Orion looked to me, his eyes rich and deep.
“A pity, Bennett, because you are…so inspiring.”
Orion took the mic off the stand and faced me, holding my hand.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, my own throat tight.
“What you deserve,” he whispered back and then spoke into the mic again. “Harper once told me she wondered if life might slingshot her into the ground or into a beautiful life of her own making.” My husband’s jaw worked, and he paused for a moment. “I predicted the latter. And I was right.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Orion…”
“She went to MIT,” he continued, “and did what Harper always does: She outworked everyone in the room. She earned her doctorate and is now about to build a career where her genius will provide communities with clean water. She’s going to help so many people who will never know her name.
” He looked to me, his eyes full of pain and pride, and memories that were years old. “Again.”
A sob tried to choke me. I knew what he meant.
Langford had been charged with sexual battery and might’ve gotten off with a slap on the wrist for a first offense had Sierra and three other girls not come forward.
The prosecutor, backed by the full weight of Dr. Sterling and the Academy, argued Langford had a pattern of predatory behavior and deserved jail time.
He was sentenced to twelve years in prison, stripped of his teaching credentials, and would be listed on every sex-offender registry until the end of his life.
It had been a bittersweet victory, and while the memory of that horrible night grew older and its darkest shadows dispelled by the light of therapy, the scar was there.
It would always be there, but Orion never let me forget that our scars didn’t define us.
They weren’t what made us beautiful or strong.
They were signposts on the roadmap of our lives, telling us where we’d been.
And how far we’d come.
Overcome by my husband’s bottomless heart and endless love, I looked to the crowd, and found my mother’s eyes streaming too.
Dash’s jaw was clenched, and Tessa dabbed her cheeks and eyes.
And then I saw them. Colleagues from MIT…
and Emery and Xander Ford, Odin and Octavian, Rockwell and Celeste Mercer, and Ezra Wolfe…
Ezra. Oh my God…
“She is the bravest person I know,” Orion said, his voice thick and his eyes so full of love and pride, I could hardly breathe. “And so tonight, I want everyone here to know her name too. It is my great honor and privilege to introduce my wife, Dr. Harper Bennett, PhD.”
The applause hit me like a wave, and I pressed a hand to my mouth. Orion replaced the mic and pulled me to him. He held me close while a handful of his musicians procured violins and a cello and played “Pomp and Circumstance.”
“Congratulations, love,” he whispered.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I managed. “This was supposed to be your night. Your first tour…”
“When was it ever going to be your night?” he asked, holding me close. “You skipped your graduation because I had a bloody concert. You spend so much time cheering me on, and the rest of your time in the lab. You deserve this. More than this.” He cupped my cheek. “You deserve to be celebrated.”
Orion kissed me softly, then grinned. “Now, come on. There are a bunch of people dying to see you.”
We stepped off the stage, and I was surrounded by everyone I loved best in the world.
Emery Wallace and Xander Ford came first, my best friend with tears in her eyes.
Orion and I had been a bridesmaid and best man at their official wedding five years ago.
Their two-year-old daughter, Aurelia, was perched on Xander’s hip.
The toddler’s golden hair was the same as her mother’s, but she had her father’s brown eyes.
Or one of them—Xander had heterochromia.
But it had been more than a year since I’d seen them last.
I shook my head. “How…?”
“Orion’s been planning this for months.” Emery threw her arms around me. “Congratulations, babe!”
“Thank you, Em. God, I missed you.” I turned to Tessa, who’d snuck up to join us. “And you. What a coincidence.”
“Some actor I am,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I panicked because Orion worked so hard on this. I was so scared I’d blown it.”
“I never would have guessed,” I said.
“Which worked in my favor,” Orion said. “Come here, angel.” He plucked Aurelia out of Xander’s arms and held her as if he’d been born to do it. My own stomach fluttered, my heart full of the sweetest ache.
“Dr. Bennett,” Xander said, pulling me from my thoughts. He offered his free hand with mock formality.
I shook it with a grin. “Dr. Ford.”
Xander had also done his post-grad at MIT in quantum physics, though our paths hadn’t crossed as often as we’d hoped, while Emery had broken free of her tyrannical father to make her own way. She now ran a successful design business.
I froze and then glanced around. “Wait. You did this,” I said to my best friend. “The decorating and planning. Didn’t you?”
Emery beamed. “Guilty as charged.”
I swatted Orion’s arm. “How on earth did you plan this while on tour?”
“It wasn’t bloody easy, I’ll tell you that. Was it, sweet pea?” Orion cooed at Aurelia and then grimaced as she grabbed a handful of his curls.
Dash and my mother approached, my mother wiping her eyes. “You wonderful man,” she said, kissing Orion on the cheek as he relinquished the baby back to his best friend. “I had no idea.”
“I did,” Dash said, beaming proudly.
“I needed the manual labor,” Orion said, ruffling his hair. The two smiled fondly at each other, Dash with something like adoration for my husband. Though he was only eleven years older, Orion was the first decent father figure Dash had ever had.
Because Orion was made to be a father.
“How did you keep it a secret?”
I jumped. “What?”
“I was asking your brother how he managed to keep it a secret.” Mom’s brows furrowed. “Are you okay?”
“Yep. Fine.”
“Dr. Bennett,” came a voice. Ezra Wolfe and his husband, Matteo Ferraro, joined us.
“Let me guess,” I said, trying not to burst into tears. “Matteo did the catering.”
“Correct!” Ezra said, pulling me in for a hug. “Congratulations, my friend.”
“I’m going to kill Orion,” I said into his shoulder. “I’m going to kill all of you.”
“No, you’re going to be celebrated tonight, just like your hubby said.” Ezra pulled back to look at me, a thousand emotions exchanged between us without a word. Most of them gratitude. And love. So much love. “I know,” he said, sniffling. “Me too.”
Then he and Orion hugged tightly, and my husband’s eyes fell shut with something like relief. Because it was possible to have more than one soulmate, and Ezra was ours.
“Look at you,” Ezra said, holding Orion by the shoulders. “It’s been too long.”
Orion scoffed, but his voice was thick. “A few weeks. As if you weren’t texting me after every European performance at two in the morning, complaining about my arm weight.”
“Well, if you’d stop laying on the piano as if you’re about to take a bloody nap on it, maybe I wouldn’t have.”
Matteo and I exchanged glances and laughed. I kissed him on both cheeks.
“Ciao, bella,” he said. He was shorter than Ezra but built, with a handsome angular face softened by an inherent sweetness. They’d met during Ezra’s appointment at the Accademia Nazionale in Rome. Matteo was a chef, and Ezra had wandered into Matteo’s bistro after a performance.
“He come in, very tired,” Matteo had said when we’d first been introduced three years ago. “But he has music in his bones, sí? I can hear it. Very beautiful.”
“I’d just performed,” Ezra had explained. “But I was alone. Lonely. He put down a bowl of pappardelle that I didn’t order, sat down across from me, and said, ‘Eat until you feel better.’ I felt better immediately, but I kept coming back. Just to be sure.”
I’d loved Matteo in that instant too.
“Ciao, Matteo. Thank you for being here.”
I turned to Orion and gave him another incredulous look. He shrugged, the picture of innocence, and then I was engulfed in Odin’s bear hug.
“There she is, my favorite sister-in-law.”