Chapter 10 - The Life We Built
One year later.
The spring sun was beaming down on the back gardens of the Rossi estate.
White silk ribbons fluttered from the wooden chairs arranged on the manicured lawn. Pachelbel’s Canon played softly from a string quartet near the rose garden, where seventy guests—legitimate business partners, friends, and staff— sat smiling under the clear Chicago sky.
I stood in front of the marble archway wearing an A-line ivory gown with delicate lace sleeves, holding a bouquet of white peonies.
Beside me stood Victor, looking impossibly handsome in a black tuxedo, his eyes fixed on me with a love so bright it took my breath away.
And standing right beside Victor, wearing a matching tiny tuxedo with a red bow tie, was six-year-old Finn.
He was holding a velvet pillow with two gold rings pinned to it. He was beaming from ear to ear, his dark curls neatly combed for once in his life.
“Do you, Victor Rossi,” the officiant asked, “take Harper to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, until death do you part?”
Victor didn't break eye contact with me for a second.
“I do,” he said, his voice deep and steady as a mountain.
“And do you, Harper,” the officiant continued, “take Victor to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do,” I said, my voice filled with complete, unshakeable certainty.
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss—”
Before the officiant could even finish the sentence, Victor stepped forward, pulled me into his arms, and dipped me low, kissing me with a passion that made the entire crowd erupt into applause and cheers!
Finn giggled loudly, throwing his hands in the air. “Eww! Gross!”
Victor laughed against my lips, pulling me back up and wiping a stray tear of joy from my cheek with his thumb.
We turned to face our guests, holding hands.
Finn ran up, grabbing my other hand, squeezing it tightly.
“Mom?” he asked, looking up at me with those bright grey eyes that looked so much like his father’s.
My heart burst with a happiness so profound it filled every corner of my soul.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Can we go eat the cake now?”
Victor laughed, scooping Finn up onto his shoulder with one arm, while wrapping his other arm firmly around my waist, pulling me close against his side as we walked down the aisle together through a shower of white rose petals.
May you like
There were no armed guards in the hallways. There were no dark secrets in the basement. There were no sirens screaming in the night.
There was only the sun, the laughter of a happy child, and the life we had fought for, bled for, and built together—a life where no one was ever just hired help, and where promises were kept forever.
