Chapter 208 - Two Hundred And Eight
Chapter Two Hundred And Eight
Alicia’s POV
I took a shaky breath. "I remember that night. I’d gone to your room because someone told me it was empty. That no one used it. I needed somewhere quiet to cry where Travis wouldn’t find me. Where I could just exist in my pain without having to pretend I was fine."
"And then you walked in. This dark, dangerous man I’d heard stories about. Malachi Blackwood who’d disappeared for three years. Who everyone was afraid of. Who was supposed to be a monster. And you looked at me like I mattered. Like my tears mattered. Like I was something worth seeing."
"You didn’t tell me to stop crying. Didn’t tell me everything would be fine. Didn’t try to fix me. You just sat with me in the darkness and made me feel less alone. That was the first time in years I’d felt like a real person instead of just Travis’s wife or someone’s possession."
"I fell for you that night too. Didn’t know it then. Couldn’t name it. But I felt it. This pull toward you that terrified me because I was married and you were his brother and it was impossible. But I felt it anyway."
"For two years, that room was my sanctuary. You were my sanctuary. The one place I could be real. The one person who saw me. And then everything fell apart and I ran because I was terrified of what you were capable of. Terrified that the monster I’d heard about on those recordings would hurt me the way Travis had."
"But you let me run. You let me go even though it was killing you. And then when I needed you most, when Zhao was coming and I was alone and pregnant and scared, you came. You protected me. You proved that the monster was only a monster to people who threatened what you loved."
"You gave me a family I didn’t know I had. You gave me Sophie’s safety. You gave me our daughter. You gave me a future I never thought I’d have. You gave me everything."
"So I promise you this: I will trust you with the darkness and the light. I will believe in you even when you can’t believe in yourself. I will stand beside you through whatever comes. I will raise our daughter to know that her father is a good man who chose to be better. I will love you exactly as you are because the man you are is exactly who I need."
"I will choose you every day for the rest of my life. In that dark room, you saved me without even knowing it. And now I get to spend forever returning the favor. I love you, Malachi. Completely and forever."
The officiant was crying now too. "The rings?"