He swallowed.
“So when your email came, I thought I was answering because of her. Because I couldn’t save Lucy, and maybe standing here with you would make that failure hurt less.”
He shook his head.
“But that isn’t why I stayed.”
My chest hurt.
“I stayed because the first time you got a little bit of hope, you didn’t become selfish. You called your mother into the room. You reached for your father. You asked Dr. Shah what the next patient should know if they were ever told what you were told.”
I had forgotten that.
He hadn’t.
“I stayed because you looked your ex-fiancé in the face through a phone and told the truth.”
Caleb stood in the back.
I saw him from the corner of my eye.
Owen did too.
But he did not look away from me.
“I stayed because you thought you needed a fake groom to give you dignity.”
His voice softened.
“You didn’t.”
He took a breath.
“You brought your own.”
I broke.
Not prettily.
Not like brides do in photographs.
My face crumpled.
My shoulders shook.
The officiant wiped her eyes.
Owen held both my hands.
“So here is my vow,” he said. “Not as a hired actor. Not as a replacement. Not as a man pretending to be your future.”
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