“The company,” my mother whispered. She was an echo of herself. “You never intended to give it back.”

Corin threw his hands up. “Of course not, are you that stupid? Do you not understand what revenge is?”

“If you love me,” she said, “Then how could you do this?”

“I did love you.” Corin's eyes were pits in his skull, empty and dark. “For years, I loved you. But not anymore, Gabby. Never again.”

Next to me, Abell started to tremble. “I get it now,” he said. Under hooded eyebrows, he focused on his father. “That's why you never cared about Mom. You were in love with Gabby the whole time.”

I squeezed his hand, but it was like trying to control a winter storm. He pulled away—too strong for me to hold him back.

The whites in his eyes spread further. “You abandoned my mother because you were busy obsessing over someone you could never have, and all the while, she loved you until her final fucking breath!”

My brain prickled; I knew he was about to move, and I reached for him, but it wasn't enough. Abell had shown me in the past how fast he could be. He exploded in a rush of snarling teeth and rabid eyes. There was no stopping him.

With claw-like hands, he aimed for his father.

I cried out, watching as the man I loved lifted Corin by the front of his shirt. For the first time, the older man was caught off guard. His hands scraped at his son's shoulders. “Wait!” he gasped. “Think about what you're doing!”

“I am.” Abell's shadow stretched as he lifted his dad higher, covering the tulips nearest him in black. He was the devil himself right then, wallowing in the anger he'd smothered for years.

Abruptly, he dropped Corin to the floor; the older man grunted. Abell glared down at him, then dug into his pant's pocket.

Everyone ducked, expecting a weapon of some kind to come out. A gun, a knife, it didn't matter what. With the fury swimming in Abell's face, it had to be something deadly.

Biting my tongue, I forced myself to stand where I was. Call it intuition, but deep down in my gut, I knew everything would be alright.

Abell hated his father, but he was nothing like him.

He wasn't a monster.

The ring box was thrown down violently, it bounced off of Corin, skidding across the floor. I recognized it; it was the same one that had fallen from his pocket so long ago in my kitchen.

“When I marry her,” Abell said, “She'll wear my ring. Not yours.”

Corin's chest rose and fell, he was still alive with panic. Glancing between the ring box and his son, he licked his lips. Beat by beat, his stoic mask returned. He clearly didn't feel he was in danger after all.

“That's it, then?” he asked, rising carefully, dusting his suit off. “You're going to choose her over what I'm offering?” He kicked the velvet box; it went skidding off a wooden pew. “Love, over money? Love, after seeing what it does to people? She doesn't deserve a ring, Abram. She's a damn whore.”

Abell tightened up, searching for me. I tried to give him strength with just my eyes. I hoped it was enough. “What you had wasn't love,” he whispered. “What I have is.”

My heart soared with joy and pride.

His father kept shouting, sounding like he'd lose his voice any second. “You're wrong! Do you hear me? You're giving everything up for a worthless pair of legs and some tits! A filthy whore, a disgusting—”

The man I adored looked at me, as if to say, 'I'm better than this. I won't be tempted into fighting him.'

I wonder what everyone thought when it wasn't Abell's fist, but mine, that slammed into Corin's jaw.

The impact caused my knuckles to ache, but I ignored it. Adrenaline made that pretty easy. Corin sprawled out, the room flooding with collective gasps from my family—and a shocked laugh from Gram.

Standing over him, I lifted my hand, flexing my fingers. “Don't speak to me like that,” I spat. “You don't have the right.” Spinning, my pleats rustling like the wind, I marched back to Abell. His eyebrows were sky high, mouth partially open. He started to smile, I ended that when I stood on my toes to kiss him. “Come on, let's get out of here. We have a lot to do.”

“I know what I want to do,” he purred, bending me backwards into a dizzying tangle of tongues and teeth. When he stood me back up, I was seeing spots.

Peeking over my shoulder, I studied that wedding scene one final time. The priest had fled, my family was in tatters, and Abell's father had a swollen jaw forming.

The only thing worth remembering was the tulips.

Well. Okay.

Corin's swollen jaw was pretty great, too.

Spotting my brother, I nodded at him. “Come with us, Gram. I still have a certain promise to keep. It'll take some work, but I think I can make it happen.”

My brother grinned, stepping over Corin's ankles to join my side. “Lucky for you, I'm a patient guy.”

“Wait,” my father said, his eyes red tinted and sickly. “You can't do this! We're... we're family, Nix.”

Linking my fingers with Gram's, I pressed Abell's palm to my belly and said, “No. You're not. My family is right here.”

Once, I'd stormed out of a room filled with these very same people.

I'd hated all of them.

Especially Abell.

Now, as he slid his arm around my hip, guiding me through that wooden doorway, I realized...

I'd never been so loved.

- Epilogue -

Nix

“Are you ready?”

Flicking my eyes up, I smiled nervously. “I think so. How do I look?”

Reaching across, the woman adjusted the microphone on my shirt. “Wonderful. We'll start in one minute. Do the cameras make you nervous?”

Shaking my head, I gave a brief laugh. “No. Not much does anymore.”

The reporter beamed, motioning over my head. “Okay, here we go. Rolling in three, two, and... I'm here with Nix Birch, owner of Blue Tulip Inc, the newest—and hottest—marketing firm out there.”

I took this as my cue to wave; I did it briskly, hoping it wasn't too much. “Hey there.”

“Nix, tell us, what inspired you to create Blue Tulip Inc?”

Linking my fingers, I said, “It's complicated.” The woman—she'd told me earlier that her name was Toni—lifted an eyebrow. “I mean, it's a long story. Let's just say I wanted to... help people.”

Grinning, she waved her notepad side to side. “Well, help them you have. We all remember the hiring phase you had when Halloway Inc went out of business. It's rumored you took in more employees than you were budgeted for!”

My stomach twisted a bit at being reminded about that time. Corin Birch hadn't been joking, he'd liquefied my former company. Blue Tulip had been doing well, but it had taken a lot of number shifting—and I was forever grateful to Gram for his knowledge—to bring on so many new workers.

But I had to do it.

I refused to let those people suffer because of other people's selfish wishes.

Toni was waiting for me. I smiled politely. “We made it work.”

“I'll say! Tell us, how does it feel to be the most envied young business woman in the city?”

Flushing up to my ears, I uncrossed and recrossed my knees. “Oh, no, don't say it like that. I'm not that successful, really.”

“Don't be so modest,” a low, rolling voice said.

Looking up, I blinked as Abell entered the room. It was hard to see his face with all the lights, but he fixed that, coming around and leaning over my chair. His arm circled my shoulders, fingers tilting me into him.

His lips tangled mine up, trapping them until I forgot what I was supposed to be doing.

Someone cleared their throat.

I pushed Abell away, fanning a hand by my cheek. “Sorry, sorry! Everyone, this is my husband, Abell Birch.”

Toni waggled her eyebrows. “Oh, we know who he is. Glad he could make it, I have a few questions for him.”