Chapter 14 - THE WEDDING NICHOLAS NEVER GOT TO HAVE
Rose refused to watch the video for three days.
Then she called me.
“Come over.”
Matthew was sleeping at Mrs. Alvarez’s.
Just Rose and me.
She pressed play.
Nicholas appeared in a hotel room wearing a tuxedo jacket over a T-shirt.
Classic Nicholas.
“I have a problem.”
Rose laughed immediately.
On-screen Nicholas held up the sapphire ring.
“I bought this.”
He looked terrified.
“I have no idea how to ask Rose to marry me without making it sound like a business proposal.”
My chest tightened.
He had recorded himself practicing.
First attempt:
“Rose, our relationship has achieved sufficient maturity—”
He stopped.
“No. Alex would say that.”
I protested.
Rose laughed through tears.
Second attempt:
“Rose, you are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Nicholas stared at the camera.
“Too much?”
Then he became quiet.
“I don’t know what our life looks like.”
He looked down at the ring.
“My family is complicated.”
Understatement.
“Her family is normal, which frankly seems suspicious.”
Rose covered her face.
Then:
“But I know I want to find out.”
He smiled.
“And there’s a baby coming, which means I should probably stop pretending adulthood is optional.”
The video ended before any proposal.
Rose sat quietly.
Then:
“He was going to ask.”
“Yes.”
“I spent eight years wondering whether I invented that.”
“You didn’t.”
She put the ring back in its box.
“Matthew can have it someday.”
“Good.”
Then she looked at me.
“Alex.”
“What?”
“You need to stop living like Nicholas died yesterday.”
That landed hard.
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
I looked away.
“You built your entire life around making sure nothing ever surprised you again.”
Maybe.
Private guards.
Thick walls.
Security systems.
Corporate controls.
A fiancée whose competence attracted me because unpredictability terrified me.
And at midnight, surprise still found me in a hallway.
“You can’t secure everything,” Rose said.
“You sound like Nicholas.”
“I learned from him.”
I smiled.
Then asked:
“What are you going to do?”
“Finish nursing school.”
“With Matthew?”
“Raise him.”
“Stay in Bridgeport?”
“For now.”
No fairy-tale move into my estate.
No suddenly becoming Vance society royalty.
Good.
Then:
“And maybe someday I’ll date someone.”
I stared.
“What?”
She laughed.
“Nicholas died eight years ago, Alex.”
“I know.”
“You looked offended.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You absolutely were.”
Apparently I had become protective of my dead brother’s girlfriend.
Ridiculous.
“Do whatever makes you happy.”
“Excellent growth.”
Then she turned serious.
“What about you?”
“No.”
“I didn’t ask a question.”
“Your face did.”
She laughed.
I was not ready to date.
Maybe someday.
That was enough.
Then Michael called with the final board-investigation outcome.
Victor’s settlement had been approved.
Restitution funded.
Corporate investigations closed except routine monitoring.
The helicopter-safety recommendations were fully implemented.
The contingent trust litigation was resolved.
Camila’s cooperation agreement finalized.
For the first time in almost a year, there was no active crisis.
“No secrets?” I asked.
Michael laughed.
“None that I know of.”
Dangerous sentence.
But this time nothing followed.
One year after the night in the hallway, we planned a memorial for Nicholas.
Not at Vance headquarters.
Not at the country club.
Matthew chose the location.
A public park beside the water.
“Dad liked normal places,” he said.
He was right.
Then, on the morning of the memorial, Rose handed me an envelope.
“What?”
“Matthew wrote something.”
“For who?”
She smiled.
“His dad.”
May you like
And suddenly I understood the memorial was not going to be about how Nicholas died.
It was going to be about the son he never got to meet.
