Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
They had agreed on a friends-and-family-only wedding. Everyone apart of that circle was gathered on a spring day beneath white tents. Trees swayed in the Hawaiian breeze and sunlight poured down.
Emily’s wedding dress looked fit for royalty.
The custom-made white gown accentuated her curves.
Lace embroidered the bodice and flowed into a flare at the hem, joining her bridal train.
From the very first fitting with her designer, Jamie, she knew: this was the one.
A dreamy dress for an even dreamier man waiting down the aisle.
She would have laughed in your face if you’d told her this would be happening a year ago. Even more so that it’d be with none other than Nicolas Re. Her Nicolas.
Staring at her reflection, Emily fixed the silver diamond-studded pin in her hair. She slipped into her high heels with the help of her mother.
Juliet Pinault stared at her daughter with tears in her eyes. “You look so beautiful, dear!”
Emily’s face scrunched up at her theatrics.
“Oh, come on, Mother. Don’t be like that.”
Her mother crying was a rare sight. And Emily knew if the waterworks started, it’d be a disaster. She’d feel tempted to cry too because she knew it almost never happened.
“Apologies!” Juliet wiped at her tears. “Don’t follow me and cry. You’ll ruin your makeup if you do.”
It was too late for her Emily’s lips began trembling.
Juliet’s mouth dropped open. “No, no, no! I didn’t mean to! For the love of God, don’t cry!”
Her hands frantically went to brush her cheeks, careful pads wiping at the corner of those brown orbs.
“I told you not to because if I see it, I will!” Emily whined. She was feeling extremely emotional these days.
Julia pulled her into a tight hug, another rarity that had become way too common.
“Mother, this dress is enough of a restriction to my respiratory system. I don’t need you to add to its suffocation.”
“I—”
“Let go of the child before you smother her to death.”
Both their heads turned in the direction of the door.
Emily felt her walls build themselves up at the appearance of her father.
He looked dashing in the suit he wore and for a man his age, it made him look far too young. To the point that even his wife couldn’t help herself from doing a double take.
“Honey, I thought you said you’d wait outside.”
“I took back my word.”
Emily felt her lips twitch a bit.
They’d spent the past year trying to fix everything that had happened between them. Much of the credit went to Nicolas, who’d made it a point to win her father’s approval, for reasons she still didn’t fully understand. Maybe it was because he saw how much she struggled with it.
She made another attempt.
“So how do I look?” she asked spinning, creating a whirlwind of white.
His eyes soaked in the image of her, an emotion she hadn’t seen in a long time filling his gaze.
Pride.
“Like a princess.”
She felt her heart flutter.
On cue, Chelsea entered the room, ushering everyone out to give Emily some privacy. “Out! Out! Out! You’ll tire her out with all this talking.”
As Emily toyed with the hem of her dress, the door reopened and in walked her secondary bridesmaids. Emily spared a look of disapproval at Zariah and Valentina.
“You two said you’d be back thirty minutes ago. What happened? Chelsea had to help me into this dress earlier, and FYI, I had to endure a lot of pinching.”
“Ungrateful!” her sister sang from across the room. “That’s no way to be talking about the maid of honor!”
Chelsea was preoccupied with her phone, probably texting that professor of hers who was temporary placement. Yes, she was still in law school, much to everyone’s surprise. The guy had officially become her anchor.
Lately, though, she’d been grumbling about his teaching stint ending.
Apparently, it had only been a favor to his former mentor.
His real job was as an attorney. A pretty famous one too.
Emily didn’t know how far things had gone between them or how serious it was, but her sister was happy and that was all that mattered.
Zariah pointed a finger to the right. “Ask her.”
Valentina sheepishly handed Emily a big purple and white bouquet. The fresh scent of carnations, roses and lisianthus filled her nose. “Chase wanted to talk.”
Emily’s brows raised.
“Oh.”
An awkward silence fell among them.
Chase and Valentina had been navigating a rocky patch in their relationship. Yes, relationship. The retired playboy had shocked everyone with how deeply he cared for her friend over the past year. And Valentina needed that, especially after the wreckage left behind by Jason.
It earned Chase a new level of respect from Emily.
Valentina never went into detail about why they were at odds with each other, only hinted at Chase’s past trauma triggering his overprotective and possessive nature. Something she both loved and loathed in equal measure.
Nicolas once confided in her that Chase needed Valentina in a way that should be clinically studied. Emily had laughed, but he’d just looked at her, dead serious.
“Was it a good chat or a bad one?”
“It was…a progressive one.”
“Well, I can’t possibly be mad at you now, can I?”
Thank God for Zariah laughing to ease the tension, but she added fire by stating, “I just know they fucked.”
“Zee!”
Valentina’s face was on fire.
“I’m right, aren’t I? I found you near the bathroom with your dress hiked. I’d walked past Chase a minute before who had the most shit-eating grin on his face.”
Instead of confirming her suspicions, Valentina turned to the bride saying, “I’m sorry for going MIA on your wedding day.”
“It’s okay. You’re here now.” Emily assured. “And who knows, maybe I’ll do the same thing when it’s your time to tie the knot. Chase seems just about ready to have you be Mrs. Carvalho, regardless of your current fight.”
She gasped. “You’re evil.”
“So I’ve been told once or twice.”
“I’m so happy for you, Emmy. Nicolas is a great man.”
Emily’s eyes watered at Zariah’s words. “You should give yourself credit for that. If it wasn’t for you getting me on that flight to Montecito, we would’ve never done something crazy like a contract marriage.” Which had officially ended and become the realest thing Emily’s ever known.
Before they could follow up on that, the sound of a piano reached their ears.
Emily became wide eyed, no longer at ease.
“Whoa, what’s the matter?” Valentina inquired.
Zariah went and slipped her hand into Emily’s with a reassuring look. “You don’t need to be scared. Are you forgetting that you’re already married to this man? All you’re doing now is the pleasantries of it. No big deal.”
Yes, the contract had ended, but they’d remained married. They loved each other and it was the logical course both agreed upon.
Valentina agreed with a hum.
They were right. There was no need to worry about Nicolas getting cold feet, or about anyone’s objections standing in their way, they already belonged to each other.
Mine, a part of her purred satisfactorily.
She was seeing the perks in skipping the order of things.
“Let’s go.”
James Pinault gently looped one of his arms through his daughter’s. All she could give him in return was a nerve-racking smile.
“Just follow my lead,” he said softly.
To the slow tempo of the march, they both emerged from the open doors. Emily’s heart didn’t get lodged in her throat because of the attention or the twenty guests present.
It was because of him.
Beyond the grandeur of the floral decor and blinding sunlight, her eyes found the man whom she’d been looking forward to seeing all day. Her face blushed a deeper shade of red as his searing eyes focused on her. And only her.
Nicolas’s eyes swept over her slowly, lingering as if weighing every detail, the kind of look that stripped her bare. Heat coiled in her chest and she was seconds away from melting into a puddle.
After what felt like an eternity, Emily found herself standing next to him as he took her hand gently away from her father’s.
She had many things she wanted to say, but her heart overflowed and didn’t allow her mouth to work.
“You look exceptional today, Em,” he praised, taking advantage of her loss for words. His fingers came up and brushed against her burning cheeks.
He noticed the color of them and smiled.
The priest cleared his throat, interrupting their little moment.
They both looked at him, flushed.
“Sorry.”
He nodded before focusing on the task at hand. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”
Emily didn’t hear anything else, only focusing on the curve of Nicolas’s plump lips, the beauty mark below them, and how delectable he looked in his tuxedo.
Her name from the priest had her head snapping toward him. “What?”
“It’s time for the bride and groom to say their wedding vows,” he repeated, making Nicolas smirk.
“O-oh, um…okay.”
Nicolas was now full-on grinning.
Emily’s hands reached out to take his own once more and they fit so right she started choking up before a word came out.
Getting a hold of herself, her speech came. “Nicolas, I met you during a hard time of my life. I approached you out of selfish motives, and what I asked of you was possibly the most impulsive thing that I’ve ever done.”
He watched her with lowered eyelids and a soft smile.
“As you may already know, falling in love with you wasn’t terrifying even after how I’d been burned by the flames of it. You made it so easy. I’d walked into a house with you and never realized that you’d become my new home.”
The crowd murmured in appreciation.
“I want to express the amount of gratitude and love I have for you, but I’m afraid it can’t be done in a five-minute speech.
” She nervously giggled. “It’s more than the butterflies in my stomach or the chemistry between us.
It’s more than my cheeks heating up at the sight of you.
It’s the fixation of our souls. You’re a dream come true.
You’re kind, sweet, intelligent—the list goes on.
I love the way you acknowledge my weaknesses and turn them into strengths.
How you constantly bring out a better version of me.
“You also never hesitate to cook for me no matter how busy or tired you are,” she added. “You have no idea how I felt when you said that was a form of love for you. How much I started wanting that for us.”
“I wanted that for us too,” he revealed.
Her heart constricted.
God, how I love this man.
“But seriously, Nicolas. How lucky am I to call you mine? I’ve never wanted anyone more than I’ve wanted you.
I love you for helping me discover this side of myself too.
The one that can feel so much unapologetically.
So today, as your wife, I promise you the most important thing: to be honest and never wear a mask around you. ”
She saw his intake of breath. How his eyes reddened.
Oh, my beautiful Nicolas…
“I’ll be faithful and loving, but I’ll also be a spoiled brat because you like me that way.”
“My spoiled little wife,” he corrected.
“I vow to support you, inspire you, and love you. For as long as we both shall live, I will be by your side, for better or worse, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer. I will stand by you until the day we die and even beyond that.”
Tears filled her eyes and her voice broke completely.
“I love you, Nicolas. A million times over.”
He looked like he wanted to kiss her so badly. So much that he dived straight into his vows to get closer in doing so.
“Since the day I met you, Em, I knew you were special. You’d seen me in a state I never ever wanted anyone to. Yet somehow I was glad that you did. If not for it happening, I don’t know who I’d be today as I stand before you.”
“You would’ve been just as perfect,” she reassured him, making him smile as he went on.
“I thought nothing else could top that, but the day you so boldly proposed to me—”
The attendees erupted in a fit of gasps.
Emily slapped him on the arm.
He gave a cheeky wink.
“—did. You were offering yourself to me in a way I’d only ever dreamed of. I became protective of you, cried for you, and without even realizing it, I’d fallen for you.”
Nicolas’s eyes deepened with emotion.
“Loving you came more naturally than anything else in my life. Everything else felt like an expectation I had to live up to, but you never asked that of me. You simply just loved me. Completely. For who I am.”
Her eyes drifted to the side, where his family sat. Alessandra and Anna looked like they were crying. Riccardo simply continued to stare. She’d grown used to his inability to trust her, but it didn’t matter because the only person whose trust truly mattered already gave it to her.
She looked back at Nicolas.
“Because you came to me so easily, I was always on edge of you leaving in the same carefree manner. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.
You’re like a ray of sunshine in my life.
You taught me so much over this past year about how to love and how to be loved that all I want is to feel that with you forever. ”
His eyes held her own with such passion it stole her breath away.
“I vow to always protect you from harm, to stand beside you through every adversity, and to be the one you turn to when you need strength. I love you more than words can express, but I’ll spend a lifetime showing it, in every kiss, every glance, and every year I spend adoring you. Thank for being my wife, Emily.”
A tear escaped her eye as her hands trembled in his. He gave them a reassuring squeeze before wiping it away.
“Now time to exchange the rings,” the priest announced.
Chase handed his best friend the black velvet cases with a supportive pat on his back, then stood back in line next to Ethan who Emily became well-acquainted with.
The new ring that accompanied her engagement one was a gold band engraved with the initials E + N.
Nicolas had a matching one which she put on him too.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Nicolas, as if he’d been waiting for this moment all his life, cradled her face in his hands. His lips gently met her own. Emily’s arms wrapped themselves around his neck as the kiss grew desperate.
He kissed her so earnestly, so lovingly, that she felt it to her core. It consumed her entire being, making her disregard the world.
That was how they began the rest of their lives together, wrapped up into a blissful forevermore.
THE END