Inheritance ✔

Special Chapter: The Vows - A Private Ceremony

Laurier & Renzo's wedding, witnessed only by Clara, Rosette, and the ocean

They said I could have anything I wanted for the wedding.

An entire vineyard in Tuscany. A cathedral in Prague. Ashford security detail large enough to shut down a city block.

I said no.

I didn't want a crown of roses or a dress that took six people to zip.

I wanted this.

Just the garden of the villa.
The sound of the sea.
Rosette's laughter echoing off the stone walls as Clara braided flowers into her hair.
And him.

Renzo.

Standing at the end of the path in a simple black suit. No tie. Hair wind-tousled. Eyes only on me.

Clara walked me down the aisle.

She didn't give me away. No one could.

But she held my hand for a moment before letting go.

And whispered, "You deserve softness, Laurier. Let yourself have it."

Then I walked the rest of the way to him.

And when I reached him, Renzo smiled.

Not the smirk. Not the practiced calm.

But the real one. The rare one.

The one that always looked like it hurt him a little—because it was too full.

We didn't write our vows down.
We never would've read them if we had.

We spoke from memory, from instinct.

From everything we'd been through.

Renzo's Vow

"I spent most of my life trying to disappear behind you.

To serve you, protect you, fix the messes without letting you see how far I'd gone to keep you clean.

I thought I was doing it for your legacy.

But I wasn't.

I was doing it because you're the only thing in this world that makes me feel human.

You've seen me at my worst. You've watched me kill. You've bled beside me.

And still, you chose me.

Laurier Ashford... I will never raise my voice at you.
I will never walk away from you in the middle of a storm.
I will never stop protecting you—
Even when you don't need me to.

And even if the world ends again...

I will still find you."

Laurier's Vow

"I didn't believe in forever.

I believed in contracts. In clauses. In risk assessments and leverage.
Even love, I saw as a liability.

Until you.

You never asked me to be less.

You met me in the fire and stood beside me without flinching.
Even when I was cruel. Even when I broke things just to feel in control.

You stayed.

You stayed when no one else did.

Renzo, you are the only man I've ever trusted with the parts of me no one sees.

The scarred ones. The tired ones. The ones still learning how to want peace instead of war.

And I promise you this:

You will never have to wonder if I'm yours.

I am.

Fully. Permanently. Without condition."

There was no officiant.

No scripture.

Just Clara, whispering, "I now pronounce you whatever the hell you want to be."

Rosette clapped. Then sneezed.

We laughed.

And then he kissed me.

Later that night, I caught my reflection in the glass door of the terrace.

Same eyes. Same spine.

But I didn't look like the girl who inherited the Ashford empire.

I looked like someone who had chosen her own name, her own fate—

And the man who would hold it steady beside her.