“Melanie’s married with twin daughters,” I say, and Giselle’s finger stills. “She apologized for having the abortion.”
“I’m glad you two finally talked. It was long overdue,” she murmurs.
“She felt the same way. She lives with a lot of guilt over the decision she made, and she said she doesn’t blame me.”
Giselle sighs softly. “I can’t imagine having an abortion at any age is an easy thing to do, but as a teenager…it must’ve been absolutely traumatizing.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “She told me she should’ve given me more time to process…”
“If she would’ve, the baby would be here,” Giselle states.
“Maybe…but we can’t look at it like that. What’s done is done. She’s happily married with her two daughters, and I’m about to marry you. Everything is the way it should be.”
Giselle nods into my chest. “I love you, Kill. If it meant you’d get to raise the baby you never had the chance to raise, I would give you up, but since that’s not possible, I’m really glad all the situations out of our control lined up and gave me you.”
Twenty-Six
Giselle
“You seriously got married without me?” Olivia yells into the phone. Killian is lying next to me under our umbrella by the pool. We’re currently enjoying the sunshine as husband and wife at the Cozumel Palace in Mexico, where just a few short hours ago we said our ‘I do’s’ in a tiny church with a priest, who barely spoke English, and two witnesses, who work for the church and didn’t say anything but grinned with twinkles in their eyes. I’m not exactly sure all of what the priest said, but I know what Killian said:
“I, Killian Blake, promise to be your best friend, your lover, your protector, your partner. I will cherish you and love you and do everything in my power to make sure you’re happy and never feel lonely. I promise to be broken with you every day for the rest of our lives.”
It was in that moment it really hit me. I was marrying Killian, and everything he was promising to do, he had already been doing since the day I let him in. I might be broken, but every day spent with Killian has been far from lonely. I feel loved, cherished, and if I’m honest, a little less damaged when I’m with him. He loves and embraces every part of me: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
“Giselle!” Olivia shouts into phone, reminding me she’s still on the phone, pissed off because like the chicken shit I am, I texted Olivia a picture of our wedding rings instead of calling her.
“I’m here, sorry…I was…”
“In newly-wed bliss?” she screeches. “When Killian asked for your ring size, I knew he was going to propose, but nowhere in our conversation did he mention eloping.” Her tone has gone from mad to hurt.
“I’m sorry, Livi. It wasn’t really planned. He proposed and I said yes, and then we decided not to wait.”
“Yet, you went to breakfast with his parents…” She’s got me there. When we told his parents we were engaged, they were thrilled. And then Killian told them we were planning to elope. I thought for sure his mom would be upset she wouldn’t get to see her son get married, but I think she was so sure he would never get married, she was just happy to know it was actually happening. We agreed to go to dinner in a couple weeks to celebrate since they’ll be flying in for the birth of Christina and Dylan’s baby.
“Livi, I know you’re upset, but you know I’m not into being the center of attention like that. Plus, my mom is still getting better and my sister is crazy busy with school. I have nobody from my family to even attend a wedding.”
“I’m your family,” Olivia whispers, and my heart breaks. Tears sting my eyes. When Killian notices, he flies out of his chair to my side. I put my hand up to stop him from taking the phone, but he reaches around and grabs it anyway.
“Olivia, this is Killian. I understand you’re upset you weren’t there for the wedding, but here’s the thing. Everything Giselle has done has been about other people. She moved here for you. She takes care of her mom and sister. This wedding, this marriage, it was about us.”
My heart squeezes at Killian’s words. He couldn’t have worded it better, and if I’m honest, I didn’t even think about any of that. For the first time I wanted something for me and I went after it. I didn’t think about anyone else but myself, and I’m not going to feel bad for that.
Olivia says something I can’t hear and Killian grins. “Okay,” he says. I hear Olivia reply, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. When she stops talking, Killian says, “You have my word.”