Chapter 14 - The Wedding Invitation No One Expected
The invitations were handwritten.
Meline insisted.
Jonathan suggested printing.
She threatened to cancel the wedding.
He stopped suggesting.
Thirty-two invitations went out.
Teresa received one even though she lived ten minutes away.
She framed it.
Rocco complained that his name had been written with "unnecessarily feminine handwriting."
Meline told him he was welcome not to attend.
He apologized.
Vivien received hers at work.
She stared at it for a long time.
Jonathan Moretti and Meline Donnelly request the pleasure of your company...
She smiled.
Then noticed the location.
Donnelly House Flowers.
The flower shop.
Not a cathedral.
Not an estate.
Not a hotel.
The courtyard behind Meline's store.
Vivien called her.
"You're getting married beside buckets of roses?"
"Yes."
"I approve."
"Jonathan did eventually."
"Did he propose a ballroom?"
"Three."
"Of course."
The wedding date was set for October.
Exactly two years after the day Jonathan had seen Meline on Broad Street.
He hadn't chosen the date.
Meline had.
When he realized, he asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"You hate remembering that day."
"I used to."
"And now?"
Meline looked at Daniel playing on the floor.
"Now I remember it as the day everything stopped pretending."
Jonathan kissed her forehead.
Preparations were simple.
Flowers obviously required no outside florist.
Food came from a family restaurant.
Vivien helped with seating.
Rocco handled security despite everyone telling him not to make it look like security.
He failed.
Three large men pretending to enjoy flower arrangements fooled nobody.
Jonathan chose a dark navy suit.
No boutonniere until Meline herself made one.
White rose.
Greenery.
Small sprig of rosemary.
"For remembrance," she said.
Jonathan touched it.
"Luca?"
"Everyone."
The day before the wedding, Jonathan visited Luca's grave.
He brought no guards.
He sat on the grass.
"She said yes."
Wind moved through trees.
Jonathan smiled at himself.
Talking to gravestones had once seemed ridiculous.
"I sold the house."
Silence.
"Ma complained."
More silence.
"Daniel walks now."
His throat tightened.
"You would've liked him."
Jonathan opened Notebook Eleven.
He had preserved Luca's message.
He read the final line again.
Choose the person you love over the people who flatter your pride.
Jonathan closed the notebook.
"Took me a while."
He left it at the grave for several minutes.
Then took it with him.
Some memories deserved keeping.
Wedding morning arrived clear and cold.
Meline dressed upstairs at the flower shop.
Her gown was simple ivory.
Long sleeves.
No cathedral train.
No enormous veil.
Vivien helped pin her hair.
Meline looked in the mirror.
"I'm terrified."
Vivien smiled.
"Good."
"Why good?"
"Because last time a woman wasn't terrified enough, she almost married Jonathan for shipping access."
Meline laughed.
"You really aren't embarrassed by that?"
"I was going to look magnificent."
"You did."
"Thank you."
Meline turned serious.
"Do you ever regret it?"
"Not marrying him?"
"Everything."
Vivien thought.
"I regret people got hurt."
She looked through the window toward the courtyard.
Jonathan stood below holding Daniel.
"But I don't regret that wedding failing."
Meline followed her gaze.
"Neither do I."
Downstairs, Jonathan was failing to button Daniel's tiny jacket.
Rocco watched.
"You control dockworkers."
"Shut up."
"Give me the button."
"No."
"Boss."
"Don't call me boss."
"Jonathan."
"Still no."
Daniel ran away half-dressed.
Rocco laughed.
Jonathan chased him through the flower shop.
Teresa saw them.
"Antonio would faint."
Jonathan stopped.
"My father?"
"Seeing you chase a toddler through roses."
"Would that be bad?"
Teresa smiled.
"No."
Her eyes filled.
"It would have saved him."
Jonathan hugged her.
She pretended she disliked it.
Then held him tighter.
Guests arrived.
Rebecca Shaw.
Andrew.
Old family friends.
A few employees.
No criminal captains.
No councilmen demanding photos.
No harbor commissioners.
No one attending because of political benefit.
Vivien walked into the courtyard alone.
Jonathan saw her.
For one second they both remembered the cathedral.
The limousine.
The treaty.
Vivien approached.
"You look nervous."
"I am."
"Excellent."
Jonathan smiled.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
He considered.
"For taking off the veil."
Vivien understood.
"If I'd kept it on, I might be legally married to you."
"Horrible."
"Unthinkable."
They laughed.
Music began.
Everyone stood.
Jonathan turned.
Meline appeared in the doorway holding Daniel's hand.
Their son wore one shoe.
Jonathan immediately noticed.
Meline whispered something.
Daniel laughed.
Then they walked toward him.
There were no church bells.
No armed alliances.
No four hundred people waiting to judge the political consequences.
Only thirty-two people.
Flowers.
Cold sunlight.
A child missing one shoe.
Jonathan's eyes filled.
Rocco leaned closer.
"If you cry, I'll deny seeing it."
Jonathan whispered, "I'll fire you."
"You can't. We're legitimate."
Jonathan almost laughed.
Meline reached him.
Daniel immediately tried to run toward the cake.
Teresa caught him.
The officiant began.
Jonathan barely heard.
When it was time for vows, Meline went first.
"I used to think love meant believing someone no matter what."
Jonathan watched her.
"I was wrong."
The courtyard became silent.
"Love does not ask us to ignore truth."
Her voice trembled.
"It asks us to tell it."
Jonathan's eyes filled.
"I cannot promise I will never be afraid of you becoming the man you were."
He nodded.
"But I promise I won't hide that fear."
She took his hands.
"And I promise to believe what you do more than what I fear."
Jonathan breathed.
Then his turn.
"I once thought protecting people meant deciding for them."
Meline smiled faintly.
"I thought loving someone meant keeping them close."
He looked at Daniel.
"I thought strength meant never letting anyone see what could hurt me."
He returned his gaze to her.
"Then I lost you."
His voice broke.
"And learned that love without freedom is only another form of fear."
Meline began crying.
"So I promise you no cage."
Jonathan squeezed her hands.
"No silence."
"No lie that becomes easier than the truth."
He smiled through tears.
"And when I fail, because I will, I promise to listen before I defend myself."
Rocco muttered, "That's ambitious."
Everyone laughed.
Even Meline.
They exchanged rings.
The officiant pronounced them husband and wife.
Jonathan waited.
Meline smiled.
"You can kiss me."
He did.
Guests cheered.
Daniel escaped Teresa and ran between them shouting, "Mama!"
Meline picked him up.
Jonathan wrapped both of them in his arms.
Somewhere beyond the courtyard, Providence traffic continued.
Broad Street remained only a few blocks away.
The place where Jonathan's first wedding ended.
The place where his real life began.
But the story was not finished yet.
Because that evening, Meline handed Jonathan one final wedding gift.
A small wooden box.
Inside sat the forty thousand dollars Marco had once stolen.
Returned through restitution.
Jonathan looked at her.
"What are we doing with it?"
Meline smiled.
May you like
"I already decided."
And the next morning, the money would become the first donation to something neither of them had expected to build.
