She Kept the Trash, I Kept the Crown novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Garden Gate
We were married at noon in the Trowbridge garden, on the same grass where I had once picked an envelope.
The tent was gone.
In its place was a white arch.
Under it stood a minister with a paper in his hand and a florist who kept straightening the roses.
Mr. Trowbridge walked me down the aisle in his good grey suit.
He had not said much to me in all those months.
Today he held my arm tightly and said, "Welcome home, Leonie," and then looked at the sky so I would not see his face.
Felix stood at Kellan's side with a watch on each wrist, both set to the correct time for once.
"For the occasion," he told me as I passed. "Dennis supervised."
Dr. Wheelock and Mrs. Wheelock sat in the front row, and Mrs. Wheelock was already crying.
I looked at the garden gate.
It stood open, as it had that morning, with the lane beyond it empty.
Nobody was coming through it.
Daphne's lawyer had called at nine to say she wished to plead and wished to see no one.
She had asked for nothing, he said, not even a phone call.
I let myself feel it for one breath, a plain ache for a girl of nine.
Then Kellan took my hands, and I turned to him.
He looked tired and happy, and his eyes were bright.
"I, Kellan," he said, and stopped, because his voice had gone.
The minister waited.
"I'll say it plainly," Kellan said. "I thought I would be married for a year. I'd made my peace with that. I was wrong about what I wanted, and I'm glad to be."
"I will spend every year after it proving I'm worth your pen."
A small sound went through the guests, a laugh and a sob together.
"I, Leonie," I said, "take you, Kellan Slade, and I will keep the second pen myself. I'm done losing things."
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