For years, I had been chasing the wrong people, begging them to love me.
But this man?
The one sitting beside me in the cold, the one offering me a lifetime of love without conditions… he was the only one I had ever truly needed.
I squeezed his hand back and closed my eyes. Feeling settled.
“Then, let’s elope.”
His lips curled into the softest, most real smile I had ever seen.
“Hell yes!”
And just like that, for the first time in my life, I made a choice that was only for me.
The courthouse smelled like old paper and fresh ink.
It wasn’t grand.
No towering stained-glass windows, no aisle lined with flowers, no teary-eyed audience.
It was just Rowan and me, standing before a city clerk in a quiet, sunlit office.
And yet, I had never felt so much joy.
“Are you ready?” he murmured, searching my face.
I nodded.
“More than ever.”
The officiant smiled and cleared her throat.
“We’ll keep it simple. Do you take this beautiful woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
Rowan’s lip twitched.
“Absolutely.”
A laugh bubbled up in my chest.
Then the officiant turned to me.
“And do you, Lena, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
I looked at Rowan, my heart so full it ached.
“With everything I have.”
“Then, by the power vested in me by the state of…”
I didn’t hear the rest. Because Rowan was already kissing me, deep and soft, like he had been waiting his whole life to do it.
And maybe he had.
Maybe I had, too.
“Usually, people wait until I say ‘I now pronounce you…’” the clerk coughed politely.
We signed the papers, took our rings out of Rowan’s pocket, and slid them onto each other’s fingers. Just like that, it was done.
No forced smiles. No fake congratulations.
No people in the audience pretending to love me.
Just me and the man who had never, ever made me feel like an afterthought.
As we stepped outside, the sun hit my face, warm and golden, like the universe itself was telling me something.
You made the right choice.
And it was true.
Source: amomama
