Chapter 9 - THE WEDDING LETTER
Clara did not say yes immediately.
That terrified Ethan more than any boardroom battle.
She stared at the ring.
Then at him.
“Did you just use my daughter to propose?”
“Our daughter,” Emily corrected.
Clara covered her face.
Ethan looked guilty.
“In retrospect, the contract may have been manipulative.”
Emily whispered:
“It was my idea.”
“Not helping,” Ethan said.
Clara began laughing.
Then crying.
Then laughing again.
Finally, she looked at Ethan.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
“If all the money disappeared tomorrow, who would you be?”
The question surprised him.
He looked at Emily.
Then Clara.
“Hopefully the man sitting here.”
Clara nodded.
“That’s the man I’m marrying.”
Emily screamed again.
The wedding was scheduled for six months later.
Clara wanted small.
Richard wanted a cathedral.
Emily wanted fireworks, horses, and a chocolate fountain taller than Samuel.
They compromised on an intimate wedding at a restored estate outside New York City.
Eighty guests.
No media.
No corporate sponsors.
Rachel attended.
Daniel attended.
So did nurses from the oncology floor.
On the morning of the wedding, Emily disappeared.
Panic spread immediately.
Ethan found her alone in the reception hall.
She stood beside a table holding a folded letter.
The sight of it transported him back to their first meeting.
“Hey.”
Emily turned.
She was ten now.
Her hair had grown back, soft and brown.
“What are you doing?”
“Thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
She smiled.
Then handed him the letter.
“What’s this?”
“Read it later.”
Ethan crouched.
“Something wrong?”
Emily looked toward the windows.
“I used to think I was going to die.”
He swallowed.
“I know.”
“I thought if I found Mom somebody, then it wouldn’t matter as much.”
Ethan’s eyes burned.
“But then I didn’t die.”
“No.”
“And you stayed anyway.”
He smiled.
“That was the revised contract.”
Emily wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m glad I picked you.”
Ethan held her tightly.
“I’m glad you interrupted my dinner.”
At the ceremony, Daniel walked Emily down the aisle first.
Then Emily stopped halfway.
She turned.
Held out her hand toward Ethan.
Guests looked confused.
Ethan was standing at the altar.
“Come here,” Emily said.
He laughed.
“What?”
“You’re supposed to walk too.”
So Ethan walked down from the altar.
Daniel stood on Emily’s left.
Ethan on her right.
Together, both fathers walked her the remaining distance.
Clara watched from the doorway.
She cried before her own wedding procession even began.
Later, Ethan and Clara exchanged vows.
Ethan’s were simple.
“You asked me once who I would be without the company.”
He looked at Clara.
“I know now.”
He glanced at Emily.
“I’m the man who stays.”
Clara cried.
So did Richard.
Samuel loudly accused Richard of becoming sentimental.
Richard told him to shut up.
At the reception, Emily danced until Clara ordered her to rest.
Daniel danced with her once.
Then Ethan.
During their dance, Emily whispered:
“I have another request.”
Ethan sighed theatrically.
“Your requests are historically expensive.”
“I want a sister.”
Ethan nearly tripped.
Emily laughed so loudly everyone turned.
Clara raised an eyebrow from across the room.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
Emily grinned.
“Coward.”
Months passed.
Clara continued nursing school.
Ethan reduced his role at Cole Meridian and created a foundation supporting pediatric cancer treatment and caregiver housing.
Daniel remarried eventually.
His wife adored Emily.
Their unusual family became ordinary to them.
Then, two years after the wedding, Clara stood in the bathroom holding a pregnancy test.
She stared at it.
Ethan knocked.
“You okay?”
No answer.
“Clara?”
She opened the door.
Her face was unreadable.
Then she handed him the test.
Ethan stared.
Two lines.
He sat down on the closed toilet lid.
“You’re pregnant?”
Clara nodded.
Ethan looked terrified.
Clara laughed.
“The billionaire CEO has stopped functioning.”
“I need a minute.”
Emily appeared behind Clara.
“What happened?”
Clara showed her.
Emily screamed.
Again.
Apparently screaming had become the family tradition for major announcements.
“I asked for this!”
Ethan looked at her.
“You knew?”
“No. But clearly I have powers.”
Nine months later, Clara delivered a healthy baby girl.
They named her Hope.
Emily chose the middle name.
Rachel.
Hope Rachel Cole.
The first time Emily held her baby sister, Ethan took a photograph.
Emily looked down at the sleeping infant.
“You got lucky,” she whispered.
Ethan heard.
“With what?”
Hope’s tiny fingers wrapped around Emily’s.
Emily smiled.
“You already have a dad.”
Ethan turned away because he was crying again.
That night, after everyone slept, he finally opened the letter Emily had given him on his wedding day.
It contained only a few lines.
Dear Dad,
I asked you for one month because I thought that was all I had.
Thank you for giving Mom someone to love.
Thank you for giving me time I didn’t know I would get.
But mostly, thank you for staying after you didn’t have to.
Love, Emily.
Ethan folded the letter carefully.
Then placed it beside his mother’s notebook.
Two letters.
Two lives.
One taught him what it meant to lose someone.
The other taught him what it meant to stay.
May you like
But their story still had one chapter left.
And Emily had one final promise she intended to collect.
