Suddenly, I understood her concern. "The only woman who has ever worn this ring was my Grans. No one else."
"You never gave it to … ?"
"No."
"This is probably the worst time in the world to ask … but why not?"
I laughed beneath my breath, finding her worry cute, and threaded my fingers through her hair. "To be honest, I don't know why. I never thought about it. She never mentioned it and I never offered. But when I told you I wanted to marry you, this was the only ring I thought about giving you. I never contemplated going and picking out something else."
She held her left hand out, fingers splayed, a giant smile brightening her face. "Put it on."
"I have to ask first."
"No you don't. My answer is yes. Always was and always will be." And with that, I slid the ring onto her finger.
We'd spent the entire weekend wrapped up in each other, aside from a few hours on Saturday when we went to pack up her belongings to move her in. When my alarm sounded on Monday morning, I wanted to let her sleep. She looked so peaceful snuggled into the middle of the large bed-our bed. But I had plans, and she needed to be with me.
"Where are we going?" she asked groggily. "I thought you had to go to work today."
"I do. And you're coming with me."
"I can't, Dane." She stretched and whined, making me want to crawl back beneath the covers and stay there all day with her. "I'm not your assistant anymore. Remember? I resigned."
"I know. We're equals in this now. You're my partner-in life and in business. You're going to be a Kauffmann, and last time I checked, that was the name on the front of the building."
She sat up and blinked at me. "That's ridiculous. Utterly insane. How will that work with a prenup?"
I yanked the blankets away and tugged on her arm until I had her on her feet. "It's easy. There is no prenup."
"Okay … now you're insane. And I'm sure your lawyers will agree with me."
"I don't care what anyone says," I called over my shoulder as I walked into the bathroom. I was ready for a shower, and I hoped Eden would join me. "You're going to be my wife, the mother of my children. I trust you and I know we're the real deal. I'm not entering into this marriage like it's some kind of business venture."
"What about Gabi?"
"What about her?" I locked gazes with her through the mirror.
"Imagine what would've happened if you followed through and married her without a prenup."
I turned and leaned against the vanity. "Eden … I don't care to talk about her. At some point, you're going to have to stop bringing her up. After this, no more comparing or questioning how things were when I was with her, considering I don't question or bring up your ex." I held my finger beneath her chin to make sure she was looking in my eyes. "I had a prenup drawn up with her."
She gasped and her eyes widened. "So why not with me?"
"Like I just told you, Eden … stop comparing. You're not her." I slapped her bare ass and nudged her toward the shower. "Now come on. We have a business to run."
* * *
We started the ball rolling on adding her name to the company. It wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. However, the marriage license proved to be more difficult. We had to wait three days before we could even get married. That turned out to be fine, though. It allowed her parents time to come to Florida. They packed their bags and I bought their plane tickets. I worried when Eden had called to tell them, but they were surprisingly calm and accepting of the fact their daughter decided to marry a man they'd never met. When I asked her why they didn't object, she explained she'd talked about me every time they called-not the bad stuff, though. Apparently, they had kind of expected it. I wanted to know what all she had said about me for them to be so calm, but she wouldn't tell me. She said it didn't matter.
The only hesitation they had though, was about Janette. Eden had told them about finding her birth mother and explained the progress they'd made in building a relationship. However, once they arrived and met Janette, all worry vanished, and they all strangely acted like one giant blended family-me included.
We didn't have to think very long about a venue. We knew it would be a small wedding-her parents, Janette, and a few people from the office. My parents were out of the country and had already congratulated me over the phone. They asked me to send them pictures, but that was about it. It didn't bother me; I wasn't expecting them to be there anyway.
Exactly one week after Eden resigned as my assistant, and I subsequently found her waiting for me on the dock, I stood on the pier at the beach in a suit and watched as Eden walked down in a simple white dress on her father's arm. It was the place Eden and I had jumped into the water that night, so we both saw it fitting to be the place we made the jump into forever with each other.
Janette was a notary of the public and performed the ceremony for us. She was technically the one who had brought us together, and it only made sense she be the one to tie us together for eternity. We exchanged vows as we exchanged rings. I placed my grandmother's wedding band on her finger next to the matching diamond Grans had worn all her life, and Eden placed my grandfather's ring on mine. It was quick, just like us. Some people may have said we were rushing it, but when Eden was at the finish line, there was no way in hell I'd take my time. I had spent my life doing what others wanted me to do, and I wouldn't make that mistake again. I wanted Eden, and I wanted her for the rest of my life.
I'd finally done something for myself and gone after her.
And I would be damned if I wasted another second of my life waiting.
Epilogue
Everything happens for a reason.
In the moment, you never know what it will be. You never know why things happen. Unfortunate things happen all the time, and sometimes the outcomes aren't good. But even then, you have to trust that there is a purpose to it. Sometimes you just have to take those negatives and make something good out of them. Like making lemonade out of lemons. That was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn. I couldn't sit back and wait for the reason to be seen. I had to get up and make it happen. I had to find the light in all the darkness. And that's exactly what I did.
After being raped, I believed that not all things had a purpose. I didn't see the purpose in having to go through that pain for years. I didn't figure any good could've possibly come out of it. I no longer believed that by doing good, good would come to you. I was a decent person. I had always done the right thing. I played by the rules and followed the etiquette books. But terrible occurrences still happened.
I had latched onto Dane. I'd wanted him to make me better. And for a while, I thought he had. I thought that since dreadful things had stopped happening to me, that meant he had truly saved me. Sure, things still happened around me, but I wasn't being physically hurt any longer.
That is, until the miscarriage.
That was so painful to go through. Dane didn't know, but I had blamed myself. I thought it was my fault because of what had happened before. I thought it was God's way of punishing me for what I had done to Sean-for making him pay for a crime he never committed. But I couldn't tell that to Dane. He had tried so hard to be there for me. He did everything he could to make me better. I had wanted to be better. I wanted to make him happy and give him the life he always deserved.
Dane was a good man, one of the best. Like me, he followed the rules and always did the right thing. But it took me years to realize it didn't stop life from throwing cruel twists at him. They were just different than what happened to me. I was the bad thing that happened to him. I brought him down. I made him suffer. I stole the light from his eyes and the smile from his face. No matter what I did, I couldn't change that. I couldn't give those things back to him. But Eden did. And it took me nearly dying to see that.
There's always a reason.
I lied and Dane left. I was lost in a sea of darkness and just wanted it all to end. So in a moment of self-deprecation, I tried to end it all. As much as I wish I could take that back, I'm glad it happened that way. The scar on my wrist serves a daily reminder of the lengths I had to go to in order to be who I was meant to be. Without that one moment of utter darkness, I would have never gotten the help I so desperately needed.
Dane had tried to force me to seek help for years. But I never would have gotten the help I truly needed until I confessed the horrible truth of what I had done to a man who never deserved it. Sean taking his own life in a moment of his own darkness, one I had forced upon him, pushed me to open up about the guilt I had latched onto for a decade. He may have ended his life, but it'd saved mine.