Page 65 of Billionaire's Accidental Marriage
Epilogue
Maggie
One Year Later
“You look gorgeous, Maggie,” Guadalupe said.
I dipped down as she placed my veil on top of my head, right behind the diamond-studded tiara Mike had purchased for me. Today, on our first anniversary, we were renewing our vows in the eyes of God and everyone we would have wanted to share this incredible moment with the first time around. I closed my eyes and stood up when Guadalupe’s hands moved away from my veil, then I felt her turn me toward the mirror. And when I opened my eyes, I saw a princess staring back at me.
“Wow,” I whispered.
Guadalupe started fluffing my veil around my shoulders. “You look incredible.”
I blinked back tears, trying not to ruin the makeup Margo took well over an hour to get perfect. “I feel incredible. Is it okay to feel incredible?”
She stood at my side with her arm wrapped around my waist. “After the complications you’ve had lately, you’re more than deserving of feeling this way.”
As I stood there, studying myself in the mirror, my hands automatically gravitated toward the paunch I still had behind my belly button. The last trimester of my pregnancy had been hard. Bleeding was a regular occurrence, and I spent more time in the hospital than I would have liked. Bedrest became a staple, and my nausea came back with a vengeance. For a while there, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Between the bleeding and not being able to keep anything down, I spent more of my third trimester in the hospital than outside of it. And when I went into pre-term labor, my placenta detached early from the wall of my uterus, causing me to be rushed into an ER where they had to put me under for an emergency C-section.
Not hearing my baby’s first cry had been a hard thing for me to deal with. But, in the end, both of us had become stronger and healthier. That thought alone kept me girded and on my feet when all I wanted to do was sink into the background and disappear.
“All right, you two!” Margo exclaimed as she rushed through the doors of the bridal suite. “It’s time to get out there. Music is already playing, and you wouldn’t believe how good Mike looks in his—”
“Margo,” Guadalupe hissed.
I giggled as I reached for my bouquet of sunflowers and roses. “It’s okay, really. I’m ready.”
Margo’s eyes studied me. “Are you sure you’re up for this? You aren’t too tired?”
I walked over to her and hugged her neck. “Thank you for everything you did for us while I was in the hospital.”
She hugged me tightly. “If you make me cry, I’ll kill you.”
I snickered. “I love you, too, Margo.”
With her as my matron of honor and Ginger holding Michael, Jr.—my sweet baby boy—while she walked down the aisle sprinkling rose and sunflower petals, we all started out of the room and down the stairs. Guadalupe offered me her hand, allowing me to hold on before we all lined up behind the massive white double doors. I heard the string quartet softly playing behind the wooden façade. I gave myself a few seconds to gather myself and close my eyes as the cooing of my precious little boy filled my heart with so much joy.
Then, I opened my eyes and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Ginger pushed the doors open, and the beauty of the string quartet flooded my ears. I watched as Ginger proceeded down the aisle, sprinkling petals for my dress to gather around its train. But the second my eyes gazed farther in front of Ginger, I was stunned at Michael’s beauty.
He donned a white tuxedo jacket with tails, and a black ensemble beneath it with a red and yellow pocket square pressed firmly against his chest. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life.
“Ready?” Margo whispered.
I nodded. “You can go ahead, yes.”
Guadalupe slipped behind Margo before the two of them proceeded down the aisle, and then it was my turn. I took one step and paused. Another step then paused. And as I made my way toward Michael—who now cradled our infant son in his arms—I thought about all that had changed. I thought about how the area loyalty program had taken off, skyrocketing all of us to profits we could have never envisioned for ourselves. I thought about how the boutiques were thriving and how the crowds had barely dissipated since the grand re-opening a few months back. I smiled at the idea of finally operating well within the black in terms of finances, so much so that I was able to raise everyone’s wages to reward them for the hard work and patience they had afforded me during the business’s transition after my father’s death.
I even thought about the move I had made to Michael’s estate and how it had quickly becomeourestate when he surprised me by wanting to put my name on the deeds and titles to everything.
The past year of my life had been more than a whirlwind. It had been a torrential downpour of sadness, happiness, stress, and excitement. In the span of a little over a year, the life I had once lived had become almost unrecognizable. I wasn’t the same woman I was back then. I didn’t have the same train of thought I did back then. And unlike my former self, I dared to dream bigger. I dared to make greater plans. I dared to see beyond my wildest dreams. And I no longer relegated myself to a life of struggling in order to feel as if I deserved things.
The string quartet slowly got louder, pulling me effortlessly from my trance. And as Guadalupe gave me away to Michael, I took his free hand as he helped me up the couple of steps. I gazed into his eyes, with my veil fluttering over my face, and as I reached out to take our baby boy’s little hand in my own, my heart felt so full I thought it might burst.
“Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today on this momentous occasion to celebrate the vow renewal of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gainsley. The service will be short and sweet, with the happy couple reciting vows they have written for one another before I pronounce them husband and wife… again.”
The crowd chuckled softly, causing a smile to slip across my face. Junior started cooing and giggling along with them, and the sound filled me with a light so fierce that I thought it might blind me to the rest of the world. So many things ran through my mind at that moment. Like, how Mike and I had painted a few walls in his home to give it a pop of color. How we had exchanged some of the filler pictures on the walls with pictures of Junior and us. I kept thinking about the place in his life he had carved out for me. How patient he had been with me throughout all of this. And I was eager to say my vows so I could prove to him, once and for all, that I was going nowhere.
