EPILOGUE

“DO YOU know how happy it makes me to see you like this? With a smile on your face?”

Maddy looked up at her older brother and squeezed his arm. “Thank you, Gage. It means a lot to me that you came to give me away.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

“You really took care of me when no one else would. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you how much that meant to me.”

Gage looked at her. “It was never a sacrifice, Maddy. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Maddy smiled and craned her neck to see if she could spot Aleksei down the hill. The wedding was being held outside of the castle in Luxembourg. And tonight they were having their honeymoon in that princess suite Maddy had been so fond of.

The trees had white and red paper lanterns in them, and each chair was draped in white chiffon, the covers tied on with red bows. It was all exquisitely beautiful, and perfect. The wedding of her dreams.

The setting didn’t really matter, though. The only thing that really mattered was the groom, and how much she loved him.

The first song ended and Maddy knew the “Wedding March” was about to begin. Butterflies swirled in her belly. Not nerves, just pure, unreserved excitement.

She smoothed the full skirt of her wedding gown and gripped her bouquet of red roses tightly.

“Ready?” Gage asked.

“More than,” Maddy said.

As she walked down the green hill and to the aisle, Aleksei came into view. He smiled when he saw her, his dark eyes glittering.

In Aleks’s eyes she saw her future. A life stretched before them filled with endless possibilities. A family. Children. Love. So much love that she couldn’t contain all of it inside of herself. It was her own fairytale, come to life and more brilliant than anything she could have ever dreamed up on her own.

They had conquered so much darkness, overcome so much to reach this moment. With all of that behind them, there was nothing that could defeat them. Not when they were bound together by so much love.

Aleksei shook Gage’s hand when they reached the head of the aisle. Then it was just her and Aleksei.

He took her hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “You’re beautiful,” he said.

And she believed him.

* * * * *