It's an old memory but it's one that I suspect have stayed with all four of us all these years.

It was one of our earlier summers in Whitewood House. We were around fourteen at that time and we were all sitting out on the beach late that evening, circled around the small bonfire we'd helped Jack build, roasting giant marshmallows and looking out onto the shimmering surface of the dark horizon.

"What kind of man would you grow up to be?" Jack had asked us.

He hadn't bothered including Vivienne because she was curled up on a beach towel, mouth half-parted as she slept soundlessly. She'd only been eight then and a day running around in the sun had wiped her out. Her cheeks had been nearly as red as her hair and when I'd tried to pluck the metal skewer from her hand where her half-eaten marshmallow had slipped off and plunked into the sand, her nose twitched adorably as if in protest.

The guys and I had given different answers—some goofy, some as close as it could be to stone-cold reality. But we hadn't really understood what Jack had meant with that question. Just as we didn't understand that for all the power and influence we'd someday yield, life was a fickle fellow who cared fuck-all about what we wanted.

It wasn't until years later that I was able to give Jack a better answer as the man that boy had grown up to be.

"I'm the man who's going to love and cherish your daughter for the rest of his life," I told him that day he came into my hospital room after I woke up from my surgery. One look at his suddenly world-weary face and I knew the secret was out. "I'm never going to be her prince and it's nothing like the fairy tale she deserves but I can't spend my life—or hers—chasing after what we can never be."

Jack just smiled wistfully. "We're just humans, Oliver. Humans who fall and rise with every hand we're dealt and the choice that comes along with it. All we can do is find our footing again and make our way back."

It was a gruelling climb back from the edge and I made many mistakes along the way. There were things I regretted, things I wished I could've done differently but I wasn't going to fill my future with my toxic past. Life was too short for that and what time I had left, I was going to dedicate to the people who made it possible for me to continue living it.

"Daddy!"

I grinned and crouched down just as Noelle dove into my open arms, white petals spilling from her dainty white wicker basket. I lifted her up and tried to fix the frothy skirt of her dusty rose gown around her legs. A warm, sweet ache bloomed in my chest especially when she wrapped her short little arms around my neck.

"Noelle, you've got to stay down and wait for your Mommy," Stellan, who stood beside me, gently murmured to my restless five-year-old who kept wiggling in my arms until she was comfortable. She paid little regard to the delicate wreath of white little flowers on her hair that was starting to get crooked.

Noelle turned her head and laid it on my shoulder, gazing up at her uncle with serious eyes. "But I want Daddy."

Stellan just helplessly cast his eyes up to the sky as I chuckled and beamed down on my daughter, Noelle Adrianne Yates. She had my dark hair and symmetrical face but she had Vivienne's deep, silvery gray eyes and full pouty mouth with the soft indentation on the center of her bottom lip. God help me but she was going to be every bit as beautiful as her mother—and definitely just as troublesome. Even at five, she knew exactly how special she was and the power she had over everyone. Whether it would be a cheeky smile, a batting of her long lashes or a sweet kiss she'd plant on someone's cheek—she knew how to work her charm.

"Mommy's here. Look," I said to my little girl as I turned her around just as Vivienne stepped out from the halo of the bright, late afternoon sun that flooded the doorway and the aisle of the small, old chapel.

My heart clenched at the glorious sight of her.

The rich copper shade of her long, heavy locks floating casually down her shoulders and arms brightened her ivory skin, the flush of her cheeks matching the rosiness of her smiling mouth. Her dress was a vintage lace piece with tapered sleeves and a slender skirt that skimmed gracefully around her as she walked down the aisle on Jack's arm. She wore no veil—just her mother's old pearl brooch tucked into the sweep of hair just above her ear.

"Mommy looks like an angel," Noelle mumbled in a small, awed voice, resonating the thought of every single person gathered in the chapel with us today.

"She does, sweetheart," I said, my voice catching. "She's my angel."

Vivienne would forever be a beauty to anyone with eyes, her elegance timeless and almost otherworldly, one wouldn't disagree with the possibility of her having descended from the heavens.

But Vivienne was as human as one could get.

She felt deeply, feared the unknown, made mistakes and rose from the ashes burning brighter than ever.

She lived with compassion and a resilience that to this day, I still wished I never forced her to learn the way she did.

There were times when I felt like I didn't deserve her.

When all you'd done was hurt someone, it was easy to wonder if you were capable of the opposite at all.

But isn't that how we're all saved? With the love of someone who deserves far more but is content with what little we can offer?

It would take time but someday, I'd be the man she deserves.

Noelle wiggled to get back down on her feet and even as I carefully let her down, my eyes never left my wife. She only broke away from my gaze when our daughter ran up to her to take her other hand even while it was holding a small cluster of wild flowers.

"Happy anniversary, Mrs. Yates," I told her after Jack and Noelle finally delivered her to me by the altar. I took her hand and brought it to my lips, pressing a kiss on the back of it.

She smiled at me and for a moment it reminded me of the girl Vivienne had been when she followed me up the hill the day my I buried my family. Her eyes were sparkling so brightly one could almost forget she'd ever known pain.

But she had and mostly because of me.

I would never forget but I wouldn't let it stop me from making sure that from this day forward, she would known never know that kind of pain again.

It all comes down to choice. You can be the man who breaks her heart. Or you can be the man who makes her happy.

My choice was to be the man that made Vivienne happy, and happy for the right reasons. Reasons that didn't revolve around money or status but rather on who I was as a man, husband and father.

"Happy anniversary, Mr. Yates," she told me back, her hand squeezing mine. "It might not seem like a lucky number to some but I'm glad we made it here."

The last five years had been somewhat of a whirlwind for our family.

Suddenly, everyone close to us knew and frankly, that was all we cared about. We made no big public announcements. Vivienne continued to be professionally known by her maiden name since it was part of her brand but with everything else, she used her married name that eventually people picked up on it. We gave no interviews—just smiles and shrugs and casual confirmation to those who didn't shy away from asking outright.

The renovation of my old family home finished just in time for Noelle's birth and suddenly, the once-empty halls and rooms echoed with something fresh and happy. We split our time between there and the chateau where Noelle would bring flowers to Theodore's grave.

Vivienne said she didn't require the grand wedding she'd missed due to our hasty Vegas nuptials but when our anniversary started to roll around, I convinced her to pack up our family and friends and quietly renew our vows here in the old chapel of the chateau. This old, grand place somewhat symbolized our marriage—steeped in history and strengthened by it, wrought with memories both dark and wonderful, and built to last through several more lifetimes.

We repeated our vows to each other, ten years from when we first said them, and meant them more than ever.

I never knew I needed saving,

Until I was safe in your arms.

***

Thank you again for joining me in this love story.

See you in the next one!

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: My Love by Jess Glynne (acoustic version) ♪♪♪

There's nothing more that I would have that I could need

Cause having this means that I've got it all

When I was taking turns and you were wrong for me

You chose to understand and let it go

And ohhh

You've turned this black heart made it into gold

So I wanna let you know that

My love and my touch, up above is made with the warmth of my,

My love and my touch, up above is made with the warmth of my love

Looovve

Control is such an open-ended word for me

Something that I used to think I owned

I'm standing here with none, I'm feeling so complete

You helped me understand to let it go

And ohhh

You've turned this black heart made it into gold

So I wanna let you know that

My love and my touch, up above is made with the warmth of my,

My love and my touch, up above is made with the warmth of my

My love and my touch, up above is made with the warmth of my,

My love and my touch, up above is made with the warmth of my love