We dated for less than a year before getting married.

Caleb insisted he'd waited over a decade – long enough.

Now, he dreamed only of making me his wife.

Lucas's parents attended the wedding.

Mrs. Reed took my hand, her eyes red-rimmed. "Irene, it was our family's loss."

I learned later that Mia had slipped her minders.

Seeking revenge against the Reeds, she'd sold company secrets to a competitor.

The scandal nearly destroyed Reed Corp. Lucas spent months in court, fighting lawsuits and betrayal from the woman he'd chosen over me.

I felt nothing. Not satisfaction. Not pity. Just... distance.

"You're staring at the news again," Caleb said, closing my laptop.

"I'm not—"

"It's okay if you are. He was part of your life."

"He was part of my old life."

Caleb sat beside me. "Regrets?"

"About leaving him? No. About not leaving sooner? Every day."

"For what it's worth, if you'd left sooner, you might not have ended up at my door. And then where would I be?"

"Still scaring off blind dates with your restaurant critiques."

"Exactly. You saved me from a lifetime of solitude."

"You saved yourself, Caleb. I just showed up."

He pulled me close. "You showed up. That was everything."

At the wedding, Liam gave a toast that made everyone cry and laugh simultaneously. He said: "My sister spent years loving someone who didn't deserve her. And my best friend spent years waiting for someone who did. I'm just glad they finally figured it out before I had to lock them in a room."

Caleb shouted from our table: "You threatened that three times!"

"And it would have worked!"

The room erupted.

I looked at my husband—brilliant, difficult, devoted—and thought: some stories need a terrible beginning to earn a perfect ending.