One Year Later
Laina couldn't help checking her reflection in the rearview mirror for the tenth time in the past five minutes.
But now?
"We're here, Mrs. Barrymore," Marlon said cheerfully.
Laina groaned when she realized where he was dropping her off. "Seriously?"
"Mr. Barrymore had very strict orders. You're to enter the same way as the other WAGs."
Riiight.
And so she ended up stepping out of the limo right where all the reporters were, their cameras flashing before her heels even hit the pavement, and of course they took lots of photos, and even though it had been a year already, living in the limelight as Troy Barrymore's wife...
It was still the most terrifying thing she had ever done. And she said that as a woman who had once set off a smoke alarm by boiling water.
"Laina, over here!"
Oh, thank goodness for Camilla.
The two of them walked arm in arm inside the stadium. People they walked past greeted them, some even asked for autographs, and all of these...it still took getting used to.
"How does it feel," Camilla teased, "being the most beloved Waymakers WAG ever?"
"That's you—"
"Oh, I don't count," Camilla countered. "I'm married to the CEO. You, though..." They entered the arena then, and as if to prove her point, the entire crowd cheered as soon as Laina's face popped up on the jumbotron.
"Everyone thinks your love story is a fairytale."
Laina could only shake her head and smile as she waved shyly at the crowd.
What people saw as a fairytale...was actually an answered prayer for both Troy and her.
It probably wouldn't make sense to most people, but it was only when their marriage had fallen apart that she and Troy both found their way to God.
And it was their faith in a God who was in control that helped shape their decisions, like having an honest conversation with his relatives.
In a perfect world, Aunt Trisha would have simply confessed the truth and repented.
She would have admitted to doing her best to poison Laina's mind because Troy's grandfather — the one with the hospital wing and the trust fund and the house in Connecticut — had written his will in a way that named Trisha and her children as the next beneficiaries.
But only if Troy's marriage ended. And so for seven years, Aunt Trisha had smiled at Laina and called her "sweetheart" and told her she wasn't enough, all while waiting for the marriage to crumble so she could collect what she believed was rightfully hers.
But what happened instead was Aunt Trisha acting all offended and telling Troy and Laina to never talk to her again or show their faces at any Barrymore gathering.
That was the last time she and Troy had spoken to his aunt, and sadly, a mutual acquaintance had informed them of Aunt Trisha recently being diagnosed with stage-four cancer. They had tried to reach out, but Aunt Trisha had refused to see them.
It hurt. Even now, even after everything, it still hurt. Because Laina had genuinely loved the woman she thought Aunt Trisha was. And losing that...was a grief she still didn't quite know what to do with.
But she knew what to do with the other kind of grief. The kind she used to carry around like a second skin.
She had given that one to God. And He had given her this.
This.
A stadium full of people cheering her name. A best friend in Camilla. A marriage that was stronger for having nearly broken. And a husband who—
Lost in her thoughts as she was, she didn't notice how the crowd around her seemed to be caught up in another round of excitement. It was only when a shadow fell over her—
Oh!
Troy was standing in front of her, in his old hockey uniform, and he was in skates.
"W-What's happening?"
He simply motioned for her to step out onto the ice, and the moment she did — in heels, on ice, which was exactly as graceful as it sounded — he swept her up and she could only laugh and hold on to his neck as he skated her around the rink.
"Someone told me about a little secret."
"W-What secret?"
"That the girl I married loves a particular scene—"
Oh no.
"From a particular movie..."
"D-Don't!"
But it was too late. He had already lifted her above his head, and the crowd was roaring, and the music was playing, and she was flying.
Laina Blackett Barrymore, who had spent seven years being invisible, was soaring above center ice in the arms of the man she loved, with twenty thousand people on their feet and her face on every screen and her husband's hands steady beneath her.
And she wasn't afraid.
Because truly, her life as his secret wife was over, and in its place was this — Troy somehow finding new ways each day to show Laina, and the rest of the world, just how much he loved her.
The End