Until The End Of Me
Country: Aurivelle
City: Auremont
Alvara
I woke before sunrise.
Not because of nerves.
Not because of noise.
But because today existed.
And somehow my body understood that before my mind fully did.
For a moment I stayed still beneath the sheets.
Looking up at the ceiling of my suite.
Listening to the soft quiet around me.
Today I was going to marry Grayson Hawthorne.
The thought moved through me slowly.
Warmly.
Deep enough that I had to close my eyes for a second afterward.
A soft knock came at the door.
Then another.
Not patient.
Definitely Isabella.
I laughed quietly before even getting up.
"Come in."
The door opened immediately.
Isabella stepped inside dramatically already dressed in silk pajamas.
Behind her came Vivienne carrying coffee.
Seren carrying garment bags.
And three makeup artists who looked both excited and terrified to be here.
"There she is," Isabella said immediately, pressing her hands dramatically against her chest. "The bride."
"You're behaving strangely already."
"It's six in the morning," Vivienne said dryly. "And she cried because the flowers arrived."
"They were beautiful," Isabella defended.
"You cried at breakfast yesterday too," Seren said.
"That is unrelated."
I laughed softly as they all moved around the suite.
Energy everywhere now.
The beginning of something.
Vivienne handed me coffee first.
"Drink this before Isabella collapses onto the floor."
"I'm perfectly composed."
"You threatened the florist yesterday."
"He survived."
"Barely."
I smiled into the coffee cup.
And suddenly...
It hit me.
This was real.
No longer planning, fittings, conversations and invitations "
Today.
Actually today.
My smile must have changed because Seren looked at me softly.
"You okay?"
I nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Then quieter...
"Yes."
The suite transformed over the next few hours.
Hair.
Makeup.
Steamers hissing softly.
Phones ringing.
Jewelry laid carefully across velvet trays.
The wedding dress hanging near the windows was like something unreal.
Every now and then I caught sight of it and had to look away again because emotion would climb too quickly into my chest.
Isabella personally supervised every detail.
Which meant nobody in the room knew peace.
"No, not that pin."
"The veil needs to breathe."
"She is not going to look like an overdecorated chandelier on my watch."
One of the stylists blinked slowly.
"Yes, ma'am."
Vivienne sat nearby scrolling through her phone.
"Grayson's side is fully seated," she said calmly.
"Security?" Seren asked.
"Handled."
"Press?"
"Contained."
Vivienne looked up at me finally.
And softened immediately.
"You look happy."
"I am."
"I love that for you " she said simply.
Then went back to terrorizing someone through text.
Mom helped me into the dress.
Not Isabella or the stylists
The room quieted naturally while she stood behind me fastening the final buttons slowly with careful fingers.
Neither of us spoke immediately.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
And almost didn't recognize the woman standing there.
The gown was elegant rather than excessive.
The neckline is delicate.
The fitted bodice flowing into layers that moved like water every time I breathed.
Isabella had designed something that looked less like a wedding dress and more like a love letter.
The veil rested behind me softly.
Long.
Weightless.
Beautiful.
Mom looked at me through the mirror.
And her eyes filled immediately.
"Oh," she whispered.
That nearly broke me instantly.
I turned toward her slowly.
"Mom..."
She touched my face carefully like she still could not believe I was standing here.
"You look exactly how I imagined," she said quietly.
"What did you imagine?"
She smiled through tears.
"Loved."
Isabella looked away immediately pretending to fix flowers.
Vivienne suddenly became very interested in the curtains.
And I...
I couldn't breathe properly for a second.
Mom kissed my forehead gently.
"Your father would have lost his mind seeing you today."
I laughed shakily through tears.
"He would've cried first."
"He absolutely would have cried first."
"And then blamed everyone else for crying."
"Yes."
We both laughed softly.
And for one small moment it felt like he was here too.
The ceremony was held at Blackthorne Estate.
Outside.
Beneath the winter sky.
Everything transformed.
White roses everywhere.
Soft gold lights woven through glass structures and trees.
An aisle lined with candles flickering gently against the evening air.
The estate looked less like a place and more like something imagined.
Guests filled the rows quietly.
Powerful families.
Business figures.
Designers.
Artists.
People from worlds that rarely sat together peacefully.
Yet tonight they did.
Because somehow Grayson and I existed at the center of all of it.
The music began softly.
My heartbeat immediately followed it.
Leo appeared beside me first.
Dressed in black.
Looking unfairly handsome and deeply emotional.
He looked at me once and immediately shook his head.
"No," he said quietly. "I'm not crying before we even start."
"You're already crying."
"These are preemptive tears."
I laughed softly.
He looked at me again then his entire expression changed.
Full love.
Full pride.
"You look beautiful," he whispered.
Emotion climbed into my throat instantly.
"Thank you."
He held out his arm.
"You ready?"
I looked ahead toward the aisle.
Toward everyone waiting.
Toward the man standing at the end of it.
Grayson.
And the second I saw him...
Everything else disappeared.
The guests.
The lights.
The music.
Gone.
There was only him.
Standing beneath white flowers and candlelight looking at me like I was the only thing in existence capable of stopping his breathing.
He looked devastatingly beautiful.
Black tuxedo.
Composed posture.
But his eyes...
His eyes completely gave him away.
I saw the exact moment emotion broke through his control.
The exact second he stopped being Grayson Hawthorne and became simply...
Mine.
Leo squeezed my arm gently.
And we walked.
Slowly.
The aisle seemed impossibly long.
Yet not long enough at all.
I never looked away from Grayson once.
Neither did he.
When we finally reached him Leo kissed my forehead softly before placing my hand into Grayson's.
Grayson's fingers closed around mine immediately.
Leo leaned toward him slightly.
"If you make her cry today I will ruin your life."
Grayson nodded once.
"I won't."
Leo stepped away.
And the ceremony began.
I barely heard parts of it.
Not because it wasn't beautiful.
It was.
But because Grayson kept looking at me like he was memorizing every breath I took.
And it made everything else blur slightly around the edges.
Then came the vows.
Grayson went first.
Of course he looked calm.
Then he looked at me.
And every trace of composure disappeared quietly from his eyes.
"Before you," he began softly, "I understood responsibility better than I understood love."
The entire ceremony disappeared into silence.
"I knew how to build things. Protect things. Provide for people. But I did not know how to belong to someone." His gaze never left mine. "Then you arrived and somehow made space for softness inside a man who had spent most of his life surviving without it."
My chest hurts already.
"You loved me before I fully understood what being loved properly felt like," he continued quietly. "You stayed through every part of me that was difficult. You saw me completely and somehow never once looked away."
My eyes burned immediately.
"I cannot promise you perfection," he said. "But I can promise you this, there will never be a day in my life where you are unloved by me."
Tears slipped down my face instantly.
He smiled softly the second he saw them.
"Alvara," he whispered, voice roughening slightly now, "you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I will spend the rest of my life deserving you."
I couldn't breathe properly afterward.
Then it was my turn.
I unfolded my vows with shaky hands
And looked at him.
This impossible man.
"You love me gently," I whispered. "And that changed everything."
There was silence and soft wind moving through the flowers around us.
"I spent so much of my life believing love had to hurt before it counted," I said quietly.
"Then you arrived and taught me that love could also feel safe." My voice trembled slightly. "You made room for me in your life so naturally that sometimes I still stop and wonder how I got here."
He was already looking emotional .
"My father used to say that the right person would feel like peace after chaos," I whispered. "And Grayson... loving you has been the quietest thing my heart has ever known."
His jaw tightened instantly.
"I promise to stand beside you through every version of life we meet together," I said softly.
"Through success. Through grief. Through ordinary mornings and impossible nights. I promise to choose you deliberately for the rest of my life." Tears blurred my vision.
"And I promise there will never be a moment where you have to question whether you are loved by me."
His eyes closed briefly.
"I already belonged to you long before today," I whispered. "But now I get to belong to you openly."
The silence afterward felt sacred.
The officiant smiled warmly.
Then he spoke.
The rings exchanged.
His hands entirely steady as he placed it on my finger.
Mine entirely steady as I placed it on his.
Then finally the officiate said...
"I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Grayson kissed me before the sentence fully ended.
One hand against my face.
The other at my waist.
Like he had waited his entire life for permission to do that in front of the world.
Everyone laughed softly around us.
Applause.
Cheers.
But all I could feel was him.
My husband.
The reception became something out of another world.
Crystal chandeliers suspended beneath glass ceilings.
Live orchestra music.
White floral arrangements cascading from everywhere.
Gold candlelight reflected across polished floors.
Luxury everywhere.
Yet somehow none of it mattered as much as the feeling of Grayson's hand continuously finding mine through the night.
Like even surrounded by hundreds of people he still searched instinctively for me.
We danced first.
Slowly.
His forehead rested lightly against mine while the orchestra played softly around us.
"You're my wife," he murmured quietly like he still couldn't believe it.
"And you're my husband."
"That sounds dangerous."
"It probably is."
He smiled against my temple.
Then kissed me there softly.
"You're happy?" he whispered.
I looked up at him beneath the lights.
"Yes."
And God...the look on his face after that answer.
Later in the evening came the bouquet tradition.
The guests gathered expectantly.
Music.
Laughter.
Everyone was waiting for me to throw the flowers.
I turned slowly instead.
And looked directly at Isabella.
She blinked.
"What are you doing?"
I walked toward her through the crowd.
Bouquet still in my hands.
Her expression shifted immediately.
"Alvara..."
I stopped in front of her.
Then placed the bouquet gently into her hands.
"You don't throw away something this important," I said quietly.
Isabella stared at me.
Eyes already shining.
"You keep it," I continued softly. "You hold it carefully until it reaches the person who deserves it most."
Her mouth trembled immediately.
And I smiled through my own tears.
"You stood beside me before there was anything glamorous about loving me," I whispered.
"You stayed through every ugly part. Every broken part. Every version of me that was trying to survive." My throat tightened painfully. "You helped me believe I deserved beautiful things again."
Isabella started crying instantly.
Her makeup was ruined.
"You are one of the greatest loves of my life," I whispered. "And if anyone deserves flowers at the beginning of something beautiful... it's you."
She broke completely after that.
"Oh my God," she cried. "I hate you."
Everyone laughed softly through emotion.
She threw her arms around me immediately.
Holding me tightly.
I laughed through tears.
"I love you."
"I know," she whispered shakily. "I love you too."
Behind us I heard Leo quietly say...
"Yeah , we're all crying now."
And somehow beneath the lights and music and impossible beauty of the evening...
It became perfect.
Not because it was extravagant.
Not because it was powerful.
But because every single person I loved stood inside that room with me.
Still here.
Still choosing each other.
Still choosing love.
Now I know nothing hurts more than happiness.