A year to the day after the wedding that began with the wrong groom at the altar, Elena stood in a small chapel far from the cathedral where three hundred strangers had once watched her marry a substitute — this time surrounded only by the people who actually mattered: her parents, Sophia, Rosa, Nadia, and Damian standing beside Claire with the easy, unhidden happiness of a man who'd finally stopped choosing fear over honesty.
There was no arrangement behind this ceremony. No contract, no debt to cover, no family crisis demanding a performance of stability. Only Elena, and Adrian waiting for her at the end of an aisle he'd chosen to stand at this time, not as a substitute for anyone, but entirely as himself.
"You don't have to do this again," Adrian said quietly, as she reached him, an e
