Under the Billionaire's Shelter - Jamie Knight Page 0,63

will you marry me?”

“Yes!” I shouted, before the word could even be processed in my brain.

Both hands flew to my mouth, covering it entirely, tears of joy already rolling down my cheeks. It was all too perfect. It had to be a dream, or some kind of elaborate and sophisticated computer simulation. It couldn’t be real, and yet it was. I could feel the coolness of the metal as Tobias slid it onto my finger.

To think the entire reason I was there in a near-mansion, reunited with my son, pregnant with another baby, free forever of my ex, engaged to the most wonderful man I had ever met, was because Mercy signed me up for a reality show because she thought it would be fun. We used to make fun of shows like Second Chance Bachelorette, watching episodes here and there, trying to figure out which bits were real and which ones had been worked in by the producers to heighten the already insane sense of drama.

Mercy actually got really good at it. I was only about fifty-fifty, as far as we could tell.

It was supposed to be a laugh. A carefree trip to the big city to try and forget about all the shit in my life. The advertising tried to sell it as something else, as if there was a real chance at fixing love through the reality show. It was a notion that had several seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette to contradict it.

It never worked out that way. Except it had.

When I least expected it, what was supposed to be an escapist lark turned into a new family.

Funny how things worked out sometimes.

Epilogue

Tobias

It was a church affair. I let Addie suggest it, knowing full-well about her Presbyterian background. I got the sense it was more for other family than her, though. She was more than willing to go with it.

It really was admirable how, even after all the shit she had been through, more than enough to turn most people to nihilism if not outright objectivism, she still put others ahead of herself. Even those she admitted that she hated.

It wasn’t so much a matter of going big as going old. The majority of cathedrals, both catholic and conservative protestant, got to a particular state of gargantuan before the 20th century. Devotion could make people do some strange and interesting things.

Despite the inanities of tradition, I more or less insisted on helping Addie find a wedding dress. We had more than enough options from all sides of our families. I did have seven sisters, after all.

Addie had gotten a bit bolder in terms of giving her opinion. My mother’s dress, while still quite lovely, was such a tight fit it made sweet Addie’s tits fall asleep. To be fair, she was quite well blessed in the chest area

The wedding was big but not particularly fancy. Neither of us were particularly keen on speeding hours or weeks planning or handing the occasion to the self-serving whims of a dictator with a clipboard, more commonly known as a ‘wedding planner.’ Besides which, it struck both of us that to add a thing, particularly anything as garish as cut flowers, to the existing beauty of the 18th century structure would very much be gilding the lily.

I stood tall at the altar, resplendent in a dashing Victorian tux, top hat and all. The latter tucked under my arm in prescribed reverence for their god. The slumbering infant strapped snugly to my chest detracted from the overall image not one iota.

The organ reared up like an awakening beast from deep in the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft. The leviathan did stretch the entire length of the sanctuary. The east and west walls were topped with row upon row of pipes like lines of brass teeth.

Our only point of disagreement during the mercifully brief planning process was the song to which Addie would perform her proverbial march. We were both against the bridal march and the Canon had become nearly as cliché. I knew that clichés become so for a reason but still, yikes!

It came down to a coin toss. Addie crossed her fingers for “The Gravel Walks,” with me throwing my support behind the crescendo of “O Fortuna.” Addie won, which was probably for the best.

She came toward us like a vision. Little Brogan bounced and gurgled at the sight of her mommy. I held her gently, calming her back into a deep, encompassing slumber. Addie was trailed by Mercy and