Chapter 8 - The Wedding That Did Not Happen
Edward proposed six months later.
Properly this time.
No pressure.
No audience.
No photographers.
I said yes.
Cole congratulated us.
Sincerely.
Then tragedy nearly repeated itself.
Three weeks before the wedding, Edward disappeared.
Not emotionally.
Physically.
He stopped answering for six hours.
My body remembered betrayal before my mind could reason.
I called.
Texted.
Panicked.
Then Langley Holdings security contacted me.
Edward had collapsed during a board meeting.
Heart arrhythmia.
Hospital.
I reached him furious and terrified.
“You idiot!”
He smiled weakly from the bed.
“Hello to you too.”
“You scared me!”
“I know.”
I cried against his chest.
Then refused to marry him on schedule.
He stared.
“Because of my heart?”
“Because you need surgery.”
“The cardiologist says—”
“I don’t care.”
“Lily.”
“I spent enough of my life pretending events matter more than people.”
He smiled.
“That was annoyingly healthy.”
“We postpone.”
“Okay.”
That simple answer proved again why I loved him.
The surgery succeeded.
Recovery took months.
The wedding waited.
Meanwhile, Cole faced his own crisis.
Mercer Systems’ board forced him out after years of volatility and scandal.
He called me.
“I lost the company.”
I sat quietly.
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you’d enjoy it.”
“I’m not Sloan.”
Silence.
Then he laughed softly.
“No.”
“What will you do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“You spent your entire adult life knowing exactly who you were because a title told you.”
He became quiet.
“Maybe not knowing is useful.”
Six months later, Cole started teaching entrepreneurship at a community college as an adjunct.
The first time he told me, I laughed.
“You?”
“I know.”
“Do the students survive?”
“Barely.”
He loved it.
That amused me more than revenge ever could.
Sloan moved to Europe after settlement.
Marianne entered therapy after a minor health crisis.
She wrote me letters.
I did not answer for a long time.
Eventually I allowed supervised visits with the triplets.
Slowly.
Boundaries first.
Family second.
The children turned three.
Isla talked nonstop.
Noah climbed everything.
Sophie loved books and still had mild respiratory issues but otherwise thrived.
On their third birthday, Cole arrived early.
Edward grilled.
Maya brought a cake too large for the table.
Marianne came for one supervised hour.
Nobody fought.
Nobody cried except when Sophie fell and scraped her knee.
I looked around the backyard.
This was not the family I imagined.
It was stranger.
More complicated.
More honest.
And somehow safer.
That night, Edward asked, “Ready to try the wedding thing again?”
May you like
I smiled.
“Yes.”
