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My cock exploded, and Sadie drank me down, her gaze never wavering, never drifting away from mine.
“Fucking love you, woman.”
She didn’t say anything, but I felt the hum of pleasure she let out at my words, starting at my balls until that low hum worked its way up my spine and exploded through every pore in my body. Yeah, she was mine.
Sadie Rose was mine in all the ways that mattered.
Chapter Thirty-One
Sadie
“Friends, family, and loved ones of Katherine and Terrance, the bride and groom are eternally grateful you could be here to witness the joining of their lives in matrimony.”
The burly Justice of the Peace stood between Kat and Terry, his bright white teeth showing through his bearded smile.
“Kat and Terry,” Kat stage whispered, looking beautiful in her white gown that showed off her lean curves. She had lowered the neckline and shortened the hem, but the dress was elegant, understated, and very clearly the dress I’d worn on my own wedding day.
“Right.” The bearded man smiled. “Kat and Terry.” He looked around at the gathered crowd, Maisie beside Kat and Jasper beside Terry. Calvin and Ava Rose sat in the front row behind Terry, beside Vanessa and Maddie. To my left sat Virgil with Thomas on my right, his hand on top of mine.
Kat was gorgeous in her white dress, red smile, and blue eyes shining with so much love I had to look away. As in love as I thought myself to be with Colm, I’d never felt the way she looked at Terry in this moment. That kind of love, I was sure, had eluded me. It had been reserved for Jasper, Virgil, Kat, and Calvin. And now, Ava Rose.
Kat wasn’t just a different woman; she was a better woman than me. She’d found a way to be strong without compromising her ability to love and be loved. She and Terry were both gangsters at heart, but when it came to their love, they were a fucking Hallmark movie.
There were good things in store for them.
“Marriage isn’t just a contract; it’s a promise. A commitment made by you, Kat and Terry, today to share your life and your joy, your pain, and your sorrow. Celebrate your victories and take solace together in your failures. A commitment to help each other achieve the best possible versions of yourself and your love.”
I listened to these vows with an open heart, noticing how different they were from the religious vows Colm and I had taken. These vows weren’t about possession and obligations, it was about making it work because you loved the other person and wanted it to work.
Yeah, she’ll be better than all right.
I may not be like Katherine, but I’d come a long fucking way from the daughter of religious zealots, from the wife of an abusive drunken mobster who couldn’t make a buck to save his life.
As I watched Kat take her vows and listened to those carefully spoken words, I let go of the hate I’d held onto for too many fucking years to count. Instead of resenting Colm, I was grateful that he’d given me the escape I desperately needed from the life my parents had in store for me. I was even more grateful that because of Colm, I met Cillian, the man who taught me just how strong and capable I was. He told me I was smart and worthy. And the craziest fucking part of all? I believed him. That belief is what got me here.
As I shed all the hate in my heart for my dead husband, I sent up a word of gratitude because, though Colm and I hadn’t loved each other the way I thought we could, he’d given me the greatest loves of my life. Jasper, my legacy. Kat, a better version of myself. Virgil, the tough guy and family protector. Calvin, the genius who hated me now, but we would fix it. I was sure of that now.
Colm wasn’t much in the way of a husband or a father, but somehow that man had given me everything I needed to become the woman who sat here today, watching her only daughter give her love so freely to another. He was a right bastard, but meeting him had given me four beautiful children and the business that built me.
I couldn’t hate him anymore, and I’d long ago stopped regretting that we ever met. I’d loved Colm in the only way I knew how and in his own way, he loved me too.
“Until today, Kat and Terry have lived their lives as separate individuals with their own hopes and dreams. From this moment forward, you become a unit. A team. A partnership. Every decision and choice you make will be made together.” He smiled one final time before he officially pronounced them husband and wife. “You may now seal your union with a kiss. Friends and family, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Manning.”
