Page 136 of Mended Fences
Chase didn’t stop until he reached me. He dropped to one knee, panting, eyes wild.
Then he pulled a ring out of his Carhartt pocket.
“Elena Ventura—” he gasped, chest heaving.
Rhett leaned against the kitchen wall, arms crossed and a smug grin on his face. Emma’s hands were clasped over her mouth, tears already streaming down her face.
“Will you marry me?”
I looked into Chase’s bright-blue eyes—so full of love, sincerity, and that unshakable joy he wore just for me—then down at our daughter. “What do you think, Lulu? Should I marry Daddy?”
Her perfectly timed babble was all the answer I needed.
As Luci bounced in my arms with a chorus of, “ya-ya-ya-ya,” Chase grinned and slipped the opal ring onto my finger.
I’d spent years wearing a gaudy diamond that only ever reminded me of what was expected of me—how I was meant to look, act, serve, shrink. That ring had weighed me down with the full force of control disguised as devotion.
But this one?
This one was different.
It was light. Bright.
Hopeful and happy.
It was the first breath of fresh air after being buried alive.
It was choosing love.
Choosing trust.
Choosinghim.
