Chapter 19 - THE SECOND PROPOSAL
Mark proposed three years after Victoria left.
Not at a gala.
Not at a billionaire resort.
Not surrounded by reporters.
He chose the living room.
The train track was still there.
Leo, now eight, helped arrange tiny wooden signs along the rails.
Elena entered from the garden.
"What are you two doing?"
"Nothing," Leo said suspiciously.
Mark stood.
Elena immediately knew.
"Oh, no."
Mark froze.
"No?"
She laughed.
"No, as in you didn't."
"I did."
Leo interrupted.
"Dad practiced seventeen times."
"Traitor."
Mark knelt.
Elena covered her mouth.
The ring was elegant but simple.
Mark spoke quietly.
"The first time I planned to marry someone, I was trying to build the family I thought Leo needed."
Elena's eyes filled.
"This time I'm not trying to build anything."
He looked toward Leo.
"We already have a family."
Leo nodded enthusiastically.
"I just want to spend the rest of my life honoring it."
Mark looked back at Elena.
"Will you marry me?"
She cried before she answered.
"Yes."
Leo screamed.
"YES!"
Mark laughed.
"Technically, I asked her."
"I know, but she was slow."
Elena pulled both of them into her arms.
Years earlier, the grand hall had echoed with fear.
Tonight, the mansion echoed with laughter.
May you like
And no one needed a camera to prove the moment was real.
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