“Meredith Parker—”
“Lane.”
Adrian blinked.
“What?”
“I’m still Meredith Lane.”
He laughed nervously.
“Right. Meredith Lane, will you—”
“Wait.”
His face fell.
I reached into my pocket.
Not for the ring.
For a folded piece of paper.
“I need to tell you something first.”
Adrian slowly stood.
“What?”
For once, I had the secret.
And I had kept it for exactly forty-eight hours.
I handed him the paper.
He opened it.
Read it.
Then looked at me.
Then read it again.
“Is this real?”
“Yes.”
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
I smiled.
“Apparently, you’re not the only one capable of shocking someone in a kitchen.”
He sat down.
Actually sat down on the floor.
I laughed.
“Adrian?”
He looked up at me with tears in his eyes.
“We’re having a baby?”
I nodded.
He covered his face.
Then he stood and hugged me.
Carefully.
Almost reverently.
“We’re having a baby.”
“Yes.”
He laughed against my hair.
Then pulled back.
“Wait. You knew this when you told me to ask?”
“Yes.”
“Meredith.”
“What?”
“This feels strategically unfair.”
“Consider it repayment.”
“For pretending to be d/e/@/d?”
“That debt is significantly larger, but we’ll call this an installment.”
He laughed.
Then his expression became serious.
“Are you happy?”
“Yes.”
“Are you scared?”
“Terrified.”
“Me too.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because I’ve learned to distrust men who claim to have everything under control.”
“Fair.”
Then he knelt again.
“Can I finish now?”
I nodded.
“Meredith Lane, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
No hesitation.
No thunder.
No secret investigator waiting outside.
Just yes.
Our wedding was scheduled for September.
Small.
Family only.
I did my own flowers.
Obviously.
Colleen offered to help.
Sabrina became my maid of honor.
Thomas stood with Adrian.
Julian, Adrian’s older brother—the one person who had somehow survived our entire family catastrophe while remaining comparatively normal—handled the rings.
The morning of the wedding, I stood before a mirror wearing the dress I’d once believed I’d never wear.
Not the old dress.
I had sold that one.
This was new.
Everything was new.
Sabrina adjusted my veil.
“Nervous?”
“Yes.”
“Want to run?”
“No.”
“Excellent. Because I’m wearing expensive shoes.”
I laughed.
Colleen appeared in the doorway.
She stopped when she saw me.
Her eyes filled.
“Oh.”
“Don’t cry.”
“Impossible.”
She approached and touched my cheek.
“My daughter.”
The words still did something to me.
“Mom.”
She cried harder.
Sabrina handed her a tissue.
“Please stop. You’ll start Meredith.”
Too late.
Then someone knocked.
Thomas.
He stood outside awkwardly.
“Am I allowed in?”
“Come.”
He entered carrying a small package.
“This belonged to Rebecca.”
My mother.
The woman who had raised me.
The woman who had unknowingly raised Adrian’s biological sister—
No.
Not sister.
Son.
Even after years, our family tree required concentration.
Thomas handed me the package.
Inside was a delicate pearl hairpin.
“She wore it when we met.”
I touched it.
“Would she mind?”
Thomas smiled.
“She would insist.”
Colleen placed it in my hair.
My biological mother fastening a piece of jewelry that belonged to the mother who raised me.
I looked at both of them in the mirror.
For most of my life, I’d believed family was something simple.
Then I’d learned biology could be mistaken.
Paperwork could lie.
People could fail.
Fear could make good people do terrible things.
And love could survive facts that should have destroyed it.
The ceremony began at four.
I waited behind the doors.
Then the music started.
The doors opened.
Adrian stood beneath an arch of white peonies.
Not the same arch.
Not the same venue.
Not the same suit.
He had refused to wear it again.
Good.
That suit belonged to another life.
When he saw me, his expression broke.
He cried immediately.
Sabrina whispered beside me:
“Oh, he’s gone.”
I laughed.
“Completely.”
I walked toward him.
Every step felt impossible.
Not because I doubted it.
Because I remembered all the versions of myself who thought this moment had been stolen forever.
The woman planning her first wedding.
The woman beside a grave.
The florist hiding in a restroom.
The woman staring at a living man beneath an arch meant for someone else.
The woman opening hospital records.
The woman learning her mother wasn’t her biological mother.
The woman learning her almost-mother-in-law was.
All of them walked with me.
I reached Adrian.
He took my hands.
“You’re here.”
I smiled.
“So are you.”
That sentence made several people laugh and cry simultaneously.
The officiant began.
Halfway through the ceremony, Adrian looked suddenly nervous.
“What?”
He whispered:
“I have to tell you something.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“Adrian.”
“No, no. Not bad.”
“Those words have historically been unreliable.”
The guests laughed.
He reached into his jacket.
“Before we say the vows, I promised there would never be another secret.”
He handed me an envelope.
I stared at him.
“What is this?”
“Open it.”
Inside was a document.
A deed.
I read the address.
Then stared at him.
“You bought the old Roses & Ivy building?”
He nodded.
My mother’s flower shop.
The place where she’d worked after St. Catherine’s.
“Why?”
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