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“How did you know I would be here at this time?” “I didn’t. But I know it’s your favorite coffee shop, and you always come here around lunchtime.”
“I am desperate.”
But I wanted to hear your voice."
A sky without stars, a home without heart.
“Fuck, Vivian, I didn’t think I was capable of missing someone so much. But I am, and I do.”
I had all the money in the world, but it couldn’t buy me the only thing I wanted. Her, back by my side.
THIS QUOTE
“I don’t want anyone,” I said fiercely. “I want you. Your wit and intelligence, your kindness and charm. The way your eyes crinkle when you laugh and how your smile makes the world tilt just a little bit. I even want the disgusting food combinations you put together and somehow make taste good.”
“You take the most ordinary or unexpected things and make them extraordinary. You see the silver lining in every situation and the good in everyone, even if they don’t deserve it. And I’m selfish enough to hope you’ll see how much I don’t just want but need you. Today, tomorrow, and all the days that come after that.”
“The house isn’t the same without you.”
Veronica was a surprising exception.
Wondering if she's gonna be in future books
I’d never heard of the movie, but according to Greta’s granddaughter—yes, I’d resorted to asking a high schooler for help—it was “super cute.”
The snack was disgusting, but Vivian and most of the world liked it for some godforsaken reason.
Stop he doesnt even like it!!!!
loved her more than I ever hated Francis, and if being with her meant I had to save him, I’d do it without hesitation.
“Because I don’t care about punishment or revenge anymore. I care about you.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a little dysfunction. It keeps things interesting.”
“You and me, sweetheart. That’s the destination. And I’m willing to take as many steps as I need to get there.”
Love wasn’t always about the big moments. More often, it was tucked in the small moments connecting the major ones.
“It’s easy when you know the other person.” His reply was both casual and intimate. My heart wavered for a beat. “And you think you know me?” “I like to think I do.”
“I think I can convince the boss to give me a day off.”
“We were better as a family before we were rich.”
“We had family dinners every night. We went camping and didn’t care whether our clothes were last season or what type of car we drove. And we would’ve never forced someone into doing something they didn’t want to.” The insinuation hung heavy over the frozen table. “We were happier, and we were better people.”
We were family. We were supposed to tell each the truth, no matter how hard it may be to hear.
That was always his excuse. I am your father. As if that absolved him from any wrongdoing and gave him the right to manipulate me like a chess piece in a game I never consented to.
the past doesn’t excuse the present. And the truth is, present you is not someone I would be proud to call a parent.”
If you truly cared about your family, you would’ve put their happiness over your selfish desires. You didn’t.”
“You say she walked away from her family when she’s the only reason you’re sitting here right now. If you weren’t her father and she didn’t still care about you despite the shit you put her through, you’d be buried beneath the fucking rubble of your company. But I’m not as nice as Vivian.”
But if you talk to her again the way you did at the dinner table tonight—if you hurt her in any way, if you make her shed a single tear or cause her a single fucking second of sadness, I will take everything from you. Your business, your house, your reputation. I will blacklist you so thoroughly you won’t even be able to get past the bouncer at your shitty local bar.”
“Because they’re still your family, mia cara. Because if I could go back in time and stop your father from blackmailing me, I wouldn’t. Otherwise…” His voice dipped, just the tiniest fraction. “I wouldn’t have met you.”
“Per te aspetterei per sempre, amore mio.” “Spero non ci vorrà così tanto.“
“I love you too.”
“Red diamonds are the rarest colored diamonds in existence. Only thirty or so had ever been mined. My grandfather bought one of the first red diamonds in the 1950s and proposed to my grandmother with it. She passed it to my father, who gave it to my mother…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Who gave it to me.”
“Yes. One that reminds me very much of you. Beautiful, rare, and difficult as hell to find…but worth every minute it took to get there.”
Francis was here as Cecelia’s plus one, but he’d been stripped of all father-of-the-bride duties. Cecelia would be walking her down the aisle instead. It was a humiliating public snub for someone so obsessed with his reputation, but he must’ve thought not attending was worse than attending as the guest of a guest.
As long as Vivian was happy, I was happy.
The only thing that existed was her.
I felt the phantom tug of that thread now, stretching between us and vibrating with the promise of something only fate could deliver.
A part of me would always find my way to her. She was my North Star, the brightest jewel in my sky.
The crowd erupted into cheers and whistles. I barely heard them. I was too busy with my wife. Wife. The word sent an electric thrill down my spine.
She was my wife, my partner, my guiding star. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It seeped into my chest and my veins, filling me with warmth from the inside out. The type that existed only when you reached the end of a long journey…and found home.
