And now they were heading back to face the consequences, secure in the knowledge that whatever lectures or concerns or complications awaited them, they would face them together.
As husband and wife.
Forever bound by vows spoken in sacred space, by rings exchanged with trembling hands, by love that had survived near-death and deception and the kind of desperation that drove someone to hold a knife to their own throat.
It was perfect.
It was theirs.
And nothing else mattered.
The car's interior felt warmer now, quieter, wrapped in a cocoon of mid-morning light filtering through tinted windows. The soft hum of the engine created a gentle vibration that seemed to separate them from the outside world, creating a pocket of intimacy and peace that stood in stark contrast to the chaos they would face upon returning to the hospital.
