Chapter 7 - The Wedding Nobody in Chicago ExpectedDominic proposed without cameras.
At the restaurant where they had first met.
Same booth.
Same table.
Different lives.
He placed the old silver bracelet beside the ring.
Maggie smiled.
“What is this?”
“Your beginning.”
“And this?”
“Our future.”
He knelt.
“Marry me.”
She cried.
“Yes.”
Their wedding was small.
Claire walked Maggie down the aisle.
Dominic's mother sat beside her.
Nora stood in the front row.
Rachel cried.
Amy took too many photographs.
The ceremony was peaceful.
No threats.
No guns.
No secrets.
Afterward, Dominic whispered:
“You look beautiful.”
Maggie smiled.
“You're practicing.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I mean it.”
She kissed him.
At the reception, Maggie's old coworkers surprised her.
They gave her an old folder.
Her first job application.
She laughed.
“You kept this?”
Nora smiled.
“We knew you were going somewhere.”
Maggie looked at Dominic.
“I didn't.”
He squeezed her hand.
“I did.”
The honeymoon lasted four days.
Then Dominic had to attend a board meeting.
Maggie mocked him.
“You are terrible at vacations.”
“I'm learning.”
“Slowly.”
They laughed.
Their marriage became stronger.
Not perfect.
Real.
They argued.
Apologized.
Compromised.
Learned.
And every night, Dominic asked the same question.
“You okay?”
Maggie always answered:
“Yes.”
Not because everything was always okay.
May you like
Because she knew she could tell him when it wasn't.
That was new.
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