Page 159 of The Bad Wedding Date

Mine and Fraser’s relationship was proof of that.

Keira and Anya sat in the front row on the other side of the aisle, wearing smiles on their faces. Since Matteo’s downfall, Keira had remerged from her apartment, seeking out everything she’d missed in the world when Fraser had thought he’d been doing what was best for her by keeping her safe. It hadn’t taken long for me to show him that, by keeping her safe, he’d also imprisoned her without realising it. She’d gone along with it to keep him happy because nothing mattered to her in her life more than her one and only son. It took him a while to forgive himself for that, even though he’d never hurt her intentionally. His need to tape her up in bubble wrap had blinded him to the very thing she wanted the most: a life to live.

Now, though, thanks to Fraser’s need to give her everything she could ever wish for, Keira shone. Her hair was long and curled, her make-up lighting up her face as she held Anya’s hand and let her tears of happiness fall.

This wedding meant as much to her as it did to us. She finally had proof that Fraser was living now, too. The only thing she said she’d ever needed to be sure of before she could die happy, whatever age that might be.

Something told me she had a long and fulfilling life ahead of her. Especially with Anya by her side. The two had become more than just friends in the last six months. Seeing them together and knowing Keira had someone to lean on filled me with nothing but delight.

My sister and Lucas didn’t make it to the wedding. After just eighteen months, their marriage collapsed, to no one’s surprise. Emmie proved too much for Lucas to handle, and despite his best efforts, he’d had to walk away for the sake of his sanity. The break-up had shocked Emmie, sending her into a tailspin that nobody could get under control. As far as I was aware, she had spent the last month in Crete, wooing a Greek man who had enough money to own his own yacht.

Whatever made her happy was fine by me.

I’d come to realise how hard it was to care about people’s choices when your own had led you to so much happiness.

Jonah, Sylvie, Wade, Dean, Joey, Ray, and Jean, along with a few of my favourite residents from the care home were all present to watch Fraser and I tie the knot under a great canopy of trees in Leigh-on-Sea, with fairy lights hanging all around us, and nothing but a flowered archway acting as the altar, where the registrar eventually told us we were officially husband and wife.

Two people inlove.

No business transactions in sight.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him throughout any of the vows as he stood before me in his black suit, crisp white shirt, and black bow tie. His grey eyes never left mine either, and if it hadn’t been for the few small laughs during our self-written vows, or the fact I could hear my mother sniffling back her emotion, I would have sworn Fraser and I were there alone.

Nothing else mattered but him.

I’d always thought I’d wanted our first moment of marriage to be just ours—sacred. But nothing could beat the feeling of the ones you loved watching you commit to your person for life, knowing they wanted your happiness as much as you did.

When Fraser stepped forward to indulge me with our first marital kiss, my heart swelled, and the butterflies in my stomach took flight, rejoicing in the fact that happiness no longer seemed like a dream. It ran through my veins. It woke me up with a smile on my face every morning. It sent me to sleep feeling safe and loved every night.

“Hey,” I said, pulling back and holding his face in my hands.

He blinked at me, a little dazed. “Hey,” he said in that voice of his.

“I love you.”

With a smile that took my breath away, he whispered, “I love you more.” Resting his head against mine, I got lost in his eyes. “I’m going to make you the happiest woman there ever was, Charlotte Scott.”

“I can’t wait.” I smiled.

It was at that moment that our forever truly began.

* * *

Of course, Fraser kept his promise.

Under his care, I remained safe for the rest of our lives, as had hundreds of other women he fought for along the way, never giving up on his mission to right the world’s wrongs with his men by his side.

Fraser gave me all he had to give, right up until the day I died in his arms, over sixty years later, with no regrets in my heart, only love flowing through my soul.

Even then, he kept another promise by following me to the gates of Heaven only four weeks later after vowing he couldn’t leave me for long, while the legacy of our love lived on in our four beautiful, grown-up children and the small army of grandbabies we’d once dared to dream of.

What a hell of a forever ours turned out to be.

THE END

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