Epilogue
Dae
Six months later
“What the hell are you doing?” Taehyun demands to know as he frowns at me, messing with my bowtie. “Are your hands shaking?” he asks with a smirk.
“Fuck off.” It’s our wedding day, and anxiety courses through me. I want to get this over with. Not because I don’t want this wedding, but because I can’t wait to make it official.
Kennedy’s always belonged to me, but making the declaration in front of everyone, including the law, is what I’ve waited years for.
“Who’s that?” I growl when there’s a knock on my dressing room door.
“Probably Jersey,” my cousin answers.
I shake my head. “She’s with Kennedy.” Jersey is serving as one of Kennedy’s bridesmaids.
“Oh shit,” Taehyun says when he pulls open the door.
A second later, six men dressed in impeccable suits enter the room. They all come to stare me down, arms folded.
Kennedy’s father, uncles, and twin brother.
I lift an eyebrow, staring all of them in the eye while continuing to mess with my tie.
Her father takes a step closer to me. “This is the last time I’ll say this,” he starts. “If you hurt my daughter—”
“You’ll kill me,” I finish for him. “And I’ll deserve it.”
His scowl never wavers. He doesn’t crack a smile, but he nods—a sign that I’ve earned his approval.
He approaches and pushes my hands out of the way, taking the bowtie. “I’m not giving you my daughter,” he says, focusing on me while he fixes my tie. “But I am letting you marry her.”
His eyes meet mine and narrow.
A smirk crosses my lips. “Not that I ever needed anyone’s permission besides hers to make her my wife.”
I gasp for air when he tightens the damn tie, almost to the point of choking me. Still, a laugh spills from my lips.
“Fingers slipped,” he lies.
“I bet.”
He finishes the tie and steps back. “I have three sons I’m extremely proud of. So, it’s not like I’m gaining the son I never had.” He peers over his shoulder at Kyle and looks back at me. “But if I had to choose another son …”
He looks me up and down.
“There’re worse options.”
He gives me one final look before turning his back on me and leaving.
“Stasi’s never getting married, though,” he says before leaving.
“Neither one of my girls is,” Tyler Townsend declares as he follows his brother out.
Her other uncles make a similar declaration as they leave the room.
“I should still kick your ass for locking my twin up,” Kyle says, as the last remaining Townsend in the room. He pins me with a glare, looking more like his father’s twin than Kennedy’s.
“You should make it quick. I have a wedding to get to in …” I peer at my watch, “twenty minutes. And I won’t let anyone make me late.”
He tuts. “This son of a …” Then he nods. “Just make my sister happy,” he tells me, his voice a warning. One that I don’t need. Every day from here on out will be spent making Kennedy the happiest woman on this earth.
Kennedy
“Daddy, will you dance with me?” I ask, standing in the middle of the ballroom of the countryside ranch where Dae and I brought our friends and family for a destination wedding.
My father pauses, and his eyes do something I’ve never seen before … they gloss over with unshed tears.
“You asked me to dance at my wedding,” he says only loud enough for me to hear him.
I remember his and my mother’s wedding day. I was six years old. They got married at my grandparents’ manor.
My father looks across the room, and I follow his gaze. My mother smiles back at us. I watch as a range of emotions cross his eyes. He rarely lets most people see his emotions this clearly.
“Absolutely,” he finally replies to my question. “Stand on my feet.”
I laugh out loud. My father is a notoriously terrible dancer. “I’m too big to do that now. I’ll crush your feet.”
He shakes his head. “I won’t step on my baby girl’s toes,” he insists.
It’s a battle I know I won’t win.
“Wait.” I kick off my high heels and step onto the tops of his feet. He takes my hand in his and starts moving to the music.
“You’ve gotten better at this,” I compliment. He’s more fluid and actually in time with the music.
“Your mother insisted on lessons years ago,” he explains. “I still take them occasionally to dance with her when she wants.”
I kiss his cheek. My father hates going out and despises most people, but he takes dance lessons for my mom so she doesn’t have to stay off the dance floor.
“I love you,” I tell him.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Not enough to stay my little girl forever.”
“We’ve been through this,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “No one stays a kid forever.”
He grunts. “I know.” He sighs. “It all went so damn fast, though.” His hazel eyes meet mine. “If I had it my way, I’d go back in time, and we’d never take that detour to Korea. Then you never would’ve met the son of a—”
“Do you know why I didn’t cry when I fell off that horse?” I ask, cutting him off. “When I was twelve.”
His eyebrows raise in surprise, and then realization dawns on his face. “Because you hate crying.”
I shake my head. “Because before I felt the pain in my collarbone, I saw you running toward me.”
The memory comes back as if it were yesterday. My father pushing people out of his way to get to me while I laid in the dirt.
“I knew you wouldn’t let anything happen to me. You’d always be there to pick me up when I fell. That feeling of safety, I felt it so much more than the pain.”
I stop and peer at Dae, whose dark eyes zoom in on mine. Even from halfway across the room, I see only love shining in them.
“That’s how I feel with my husband.” I look into my father’s eyes. “I was only able to embrace what I have with him because I know what true love feels like because of you.
“Besides, you can’t fool me. I know you secretly like my husband.”
He pulls back. “Who told you that?”
I laugh and then lay my head on his shoulder. “I can tell.”
He grunts. “He did prove how far he’s willing to go for you.”
I assume he’s referring to when he and Dae rescued me from Daniel Park.
“You’ve had my wife long enough,” Dae’s voice cuts through my thoughts.
It’s then I realize the father-daughter song has ended. My husband stands next to us, a possessive gleam in his eyes.
My father glares at him before slowly letting go of my hand. As soon as he lets go, Dae takes it and pulls me in by the waist to his body. The warmth that only he can provide envelops me.
“I hope you enjoyed that dance with your father, Mrs. Kim,” he says. “Because I’m not letting go of you for the rest of the night.” He shakes his head. “Make that the rest of our lives.”
“Promise?”
“With everything I am.”
He kisses the outside of my hand before kissing my lips.
I smile when he pulls back. “Tonight is yours, and tomorrow, I can spend a very long flight studying.”
He frowns. “You wouldn’t need to study if you practiced more with me.”
I shake my head. “You’re a distraction and a terrible teacher,” I remind him.
“But you love me anyway.”
“With all of my heart, I do.”
The words are barely out of my mouth before he claims my lips.