Page 76 of Toy

“You sure? I don’t mind.”

Her eyes crinkled around the edges as she smiled at me. “It’s fine. You already made my dream come true, anyway.” She brought a hand to her lips a second later. “Was that the cheesiest thing ever?”

“Yeah, but I liked hearing it,” I said with a grin.

“I still can’t believe we’re finally married,” she said, dreamily staring at the white gold band around her ring finger. “That feels like a dream too.”

I pinched her nipple, and she let out a little squeal of surprise. “Sorry,” I said with a smirk which suggested I wasn’t actually sorry at all. “Just proving you aren’t asleep. It’s all real, baby girl. You’re my wife.”

I’d been waiting to call her that with bated breath from the second I proposed to her back in Louisiana a year ago. At the time, I was tempted to take her to a courthouse and marry her the very same day, but I knew I had to give her a big fairytale wedding. She deserved to be treated like a princess after all the shit she’d gone through.

Lesser women might’ve curled up in a ball and turned catatonic from the suffering she’d endured for so much of her life. But not her. Not my girl. She’d stayed strong all these years and made it through the fiery trials unscathed. Even when she thought she couldn’t make it, and all she wanted to do was run and hide from reality, that inner strength was still there, refusing to let her part ways with her sanity. Refusing to let her give up.

She was still using that strength to fight for others. After all the shit that went down last year, she’d built up the courage to return to college and study politics. She planned on pursuing it as a career out of a desire to help others and change society for the better. At first she was a little nervous about studying at such a late age (compared with all the fresh-faced eighteen year olds, that is) but her course turned out to be packed with other mature-age students, and she’d settled right in.

Her confidence had grown in leaps and bounds since then. She used to be nervous about being recognized in public, but now she accepted it as part of her identity. No matter what she did, people were always going to stop and stare at her on the street or point her out to their friends while gossiping in hushed voices. She was that girl from the fucked-up cult, and she always would be.

She used to view it as a negative thing, but she’d learned to look at it from another angle. People didn’t see her as ‘that cult girl’ in a bad way. They saw her as a survivor. A heroine. She’d finally realized she could embrace that part of her identity instead of running from it, and that was actually the main thing that had inspired her to study politics. She wanted to use the power of her public image to shape the future and ensure that the things she went through could never happen again.

I wasn’t surprised that she chose that career path in the end. I’d always known she’d change the world. In fact, when I first met her as a plucky little seven-year-old over two decades ago, I’d made a remark about how I thought she’d probably grow up to run the country one day.

She just needed a push to get there. Needed someone to help her break free of her father’s terrible influence along with the cult’s sinister grip on her mind.

I was glad it could be me.

When I first encountered her at New Eden, I saw a trembling, terrified girl, but I also saw the potential that lay beneath all that fear. She was confused and damaged and yet so hungry for love and affection. Like a broken toy that needed to be put back together by a steady, caring hand.

I turned out to be equally broken. We were two sides of the same coin. Two fucked up people who needed each other to become whole again. It took a hell of a long time, but we made it back to each other in the end, and nothing could tear us apart now.

Jolie snuggled up closer to me. “There’s only one thing that would’ve made our wedding better,” she said, staring distantly at the ocean.

“What’s that?”

“If your family could’ve been there. My mom, too. And Elena. It was so beautiful. I just wish they were there to see it.”

I rubbed her back in slow circles. “I would’ve loved that too,” I said softly. “But it was still the best day of my life. You know that, right?”

She nodded. “It was for me too.” She looked down and nibbled at her bottom lip. “Sorry for bringing that up. We’re supposed to be happy and celebrating right now.”

“It’s fine, baby girl. I think about my family all the time,” I replied, still stroking her soft skin. “I’m glad you think about your mom and Elena as well. They deserve to be remembered.”

“Yes, they do,” she murmured.

“Wherever they are now, I know they’re happy for us.”

She bit her lip again and turned to face me. “There’s something else they might be happy about too,” she said, scraping a hand through her hair.

I lifted my brows. “Yeah?”

“I was saving this as a surprise for the last day of the honeymoon, but I don’t think I can wait any longer,” she began. A faint smile had appeared on her face. “Besides, you’re probably starting to wonder why I haven’t been drinking.”

I stared at her, heart thumping. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Her smile grew wider, and she nodded. “I’m pregnant. I got the test results the day before the wedding.”

“That’s why you wouldn’t drink the champagne at the toasts.” I pressed my palm against my forehead. “I thought you were just full of cake.”

“Sorry for keeping it from you.”

---