Chapter 19
Our wedding was small.
No mafia guests.
No politicians.
No men pretending fear was respect.
Just Hannah, Ellie, me, Tony, Dr. Greene, Agent Morales, a few foundation families, and the ghosts we carried with tenderness.
We married in the garden.
Hannah wore blue.
Ellie wore yellow and carried Rosie down the aisle like a royal advisor.
I wore navy again because Ellie said black was “too funeral.”
She was right.
Before the vows, Hannah and I placed flowers beneath Elena and David’s memorial trees.
Not because our past needed permission.
Because love should not require erasure.
Hannah whispered, “Thank you for Ellie.”
I whispered, “Thank you for Lily.”
Then we turned toward each other.
Our vows were simple.
No forever without fear.
No promises that grief would vanish.
Only this.
“I will tell the truth.”
“I will protect without owning.”
“I will stay when staying is kind.”
“I will step back when space is love.”
Ellie interrupted.
“And keep EpiPens everywhere.”
Everyone laughed.
We added it.
After the ceremony, Ellie dragged me to the dance floor.
She stood on my shoes.
Lily had done that once.
For a moment, grief and joy stood in the same place.
Neither pushed the other away.
Hannah watched us with tears in her eyes.
Later, Agent Morales told me the final cases connected to Carlo’s network had closed.
Every major conspirator convicted.
Every shell company dissolved.
Every remaining fund redirected through court orders to victims.
Justice, as much as this world could offer, had arrived.
That night, Hannah and Ellie moved into the mansion fully.
Not as guests.
Not as people under protection.
As family.
Ellie placed Rosie beside Lily’s bear on the shelf.
“Now everybody has somebody,” she said.
I looked at Hannah.
She took my hand.
May you like
For the first time since the fire, I believed the house was no longer waiting to mourn.
It was learning to live.
