The temptation of my brother-in-law-Chapter 207 - Two Hundred And Seven

Chapter Two Hundred And Seven

Alicia’s POV

The morning of the wedding, I woke up to Lia crying.

"I’ll get her," Sophie said, appearing in the doorway. "You need to get ready. Nonna’s orders."

"But she needs to eat—"

"I’ll bring her to you after you’re dressed. Go. Shower. Start getting ready. Today’s your wedding day."

My wedding day.

To Malachi.

After everything we’d been through, everything we’d survived, everything we’d built together.

Today I was marrying him.

I showered quickly. Put on the robe Signora Moretti had given me. Sat at the vanity while the makeup artist worked.

"You’re glowing," she said.

"It’s the lack of sleep. New baby."

"It’s happiness. I can always tell."

Sophie brought Lia in. "She’s hungry and she wants her mama."

I fed Lia while the hairstylist worked around us. It was chaotic and perfect and exactly what I wanted.

"How are you feeling?" Sophie asked.

"Nervous. Excited. Terrified."

"That’s normal for a bride."

"Is it normal to have a six-week-old baby at your wedding?"

"For you? Yes. Nothing about your story is normal. Why should your wedding be?"

She was right.

Signora Moretti came in with the dress. "It’s time."

The dress was a simple ivory lace dress with diamonds all over it. Malachi had personally designed it to suite my taste. It was the perfect dress for a garden wedding in November.

They helped me into it. It fit perfectly despite my body still recovering from pregnancy.

"You look like your mother," Signora Moretti said, her eyes filling with tears. "Like Giuliana. Beautiful and brave and ready to choose love."

"Thank you for this. For everything. For welcoming us and giving us a family."

"You are my granddaughter. Sophie is my granddaughter. Lia is my great-granddaughter. This is your family. Always."

A knock on the door. It was Alessandro.

"Everyone’s ready. The groom is nervous and your daughter is with him."

"Lia’s with Malachi?"

"He insisted. Said he needed to see her before the ceremony. Needed the grounding."

I smiled. Of course he did.

"I’m ready."

We walked downstairs. Through the villa. Out to the garden.

The garden was transformed. White flowers everywhere. Chairs arranged in a small circle. Maybe thirty people total.

Both families. Morettis and Blackwoods together.

Travis was there with Emily. Both of them sober and smiling.

Maurice. Tom. Rose and Violet.

Layla and the others weren’t here. Odd.

And at the front, standing under an arch of white roses, was Malachi.

Holding Lia.

Our daughter in his arms, wearing the christening gown and looking tiny and perfect.

He looked up when he saw me and the expression on his face made my breath catch.

Love. Pure, overwhelming love.

I walked toward him. Alessandro escorting me and giving me away.

When we reached the arch, Alessandro kissed my cheek. "Be happy. You deserve it."

"Thank you."

Malachi handed Lia to Signora Moretti, then took both my hands.

"You’re beautiful," he whispered.

"You’re not so bad yourself."

The officiant began, speaking in both English and Italian, honoring both our heritages.

"Marriage is a promise. A choice made every day. A commitment to love through darkness and light, through joy and sorrow, through all of life’s changes."

"Alicia, Malachi, you’ve already proven this commitment. You’ve already chosen each other through darkness and fear and impossible circumstances. Today you’re just making it official."

"Malachi, do you have vows?"

"I do." He took a breath and his voice was rough with emotion. "I’d been away from the family mansion for three years. Three years avoiding everyone and everything because I couldn’t stand what we’d become. What I’d become. I came back for one night to handle business I couldn’t avoid. I went to my room because it was the only place in that house that had ever felt like mine. It was dark. Always dark. That’s how I kept it."

He paused, his hands tightening on mine.

"And you were there. Sitting on my bed in the darkness, crying like your heart was breaking. You had a bruise on your cheek that made me want to kill my brother. Your Burgundy hair caught the moonlight and you looked up at me with these eyes that were so full of pain and fear and something else I couldn’t name. You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and the most broken and I knew right then that my life had just changed forever."

Tears were streaming down my face now. Half the guests were crying too.

"Every night after that, when I could, I’d find reasons to see you. To talk to you. To make you smile when Travis had made you cry. I loved you for two years before I could tell you. Loved you while you were married to him. Loved you knowing I couldn’t have you. Loved you anyway."

"And then finally, finally, you were mine. And I thought I knew what happiness was. But I didn’t know anything until I saw you holding our daughter. Until I watched you bring her into the world. Until I realized that you’d given me everything I never knew I needed."

"So I promise you this: I will spend every day of the rest of my life being worthy of that night in the dark room when you trusted me with your tears. I will protect you and Lia with everything I am. I will be the man you need me to be, the father our daughter deserves, the husband who chooses you every single day through whatever comes."

"I will love you in the darkness and in the light. When you’re strong and when you’re broken. When you’re easy to love and when you’re not. I will love you completely and unconditionally and forever. Because you saved me, Alicia. You pulled me out of darkness I didn’t even know I was drowning in. And I will never stop being grateful for that."

I couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe. The officiant had to prompt me twice.

"Alicia, your vows?"