Page 17 of The Demon of Detroit

EPILOGUE

HARKER

One Year Later

One night changed everything. It sent my world into a tailspin, and I never looked back.

Penelope Carlisle stands alone in the late morning sun. She’s clothed in a long white dress, with a train that stretches three feet behind her. Hundreds of tiny blue sapphires follow the twining white wreaths that cascade down the full body of her dress. The small gems twinkle and dance in the sunlight.

I swallow hard at the sight of her. Every time I see her, it’s like the very first. She makes my heart race and a cold sweat drip on my brow. But the most beautiful thing on her is the bump on her belly, stretching the front of her dress ever so slightly. She’s seven months on now, and I can’t imagine bringing my child into the world without tying the knot with my beloved. I’ve spent twelve glorious months with her, and not a single day goes by when I regret my decision.

Penelope has lit a spark inside of me that I lost long ago. The tedium of day-to-day life has been replaced with thrill and excitement. Be it traveling the world with her on my arm or just lazing beside the fire while entwining her body in mine.

“Mr. Jameson, everything is in order. Shall we proceed?” The thin man to my side asks. He’s clad in black, with the same style of thick spectacles the Accountant wore on the night I raised and plundered the ‘family business’.

God must be having a laugh with me on this special day.

“Yes, let’s. I can’t wait another minute,” I say, before walking over to Penelope.

She’s on the edge of a sheer cliff. She stands in front of a white, wooden arch with white flowers crawling their way up any perforation they can find. Behind us, a small troop of people sit on flimsy wooden chairs. They’re laughing and cheering as I near her.

“Oh, Harker, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Her eyes are cast over the ocean below, expanding out into an endless void of blue. The sun catches the tears in her eyes and makes them sparkle and twinkle.

“You sure are.” I reach for her hand and take it in mine.

Penelope’s cheeks flush a deep crimson. “Flattery? This early in the morning?” A cheeky grin raises her freckled cheeks. “You’re just trying to get under this dress, aren’t you?” She breaks her grip on my hand and gives my ass a light spank. “Keep it up, big guy, and I might just let you.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m going to rip that dress off regardless.” I wink at her.

The bespectacled man joins us at the arch. He takes his position in front of us and starts delivering a speech I can barely hear while I gawk at the goddess at my side.

I’m the world’s luckiest man. There’s no doubt about it. I spent my life accruing wealth and status, but I was never truly happy ... until she came along.

Even now, as my empire lies in ruin and my prior partners suffer the consequences of their actions, the astonishment of it all is enough to bring a tear to my eye.

“Focus, big guy,” Penelope says, noticing how far I’ve drifted. “This is the big moment.”

“Of course, my love,” I whisper and break my gaze for the first time since I saw her.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and woman in holy matrimony,” he says. “Harker Jameson, do you take this woman to be your wife? To live together in holy matrimony. To love her, honor her, and keep her safe in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you shall live?”

“Until my dying breath.” A simpleI dowon’t cut it. If I had the ability with words, I’d confess my intentions in earnest. But some measly words can’t explain the feelings brewing inside me. The way she makes me feel, how she burdens my soul with more happiness than I deserve.

Her teeth sink into her lower lip as the bespectacled man repeats the question to her.

“I do,” she says. “A thousand times, I do.”

We exchange the rest of the formalities, but neither of us are paying much attention to him anymore. We’re both sizing eachother up, drinking in the beautiful outfits we donned for the ceremony, and picturing how much better they’d look discarded at the foot of our bed while we make sweet, passionate love.

“Shall we exchange the rings?” he asks, noticing how neither of us followed along.

A mischievous smile crosses my face. “I got you something,” I say in a similar fashion to the first night I handed the small heart pendant dangling from Penelope’s neck. “It isn’t much, I know, but I thought you might like it.”

“You got me something?” Penelope asks, crinkling her nose at the realization of my call back.

I slip my hand into my jacket and grab the box out of my pocket. It’s the same one from that night, with the23scratched off in favor of my terrible handwriting readingmarriage. I hand it to her, and she cracks it open to find a golden ring with a small diamond atop it. She takes it out, and her eyes catch the engraving inside.

Forever and always, My Queen.

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