Chapter 7 - He Had to Meet Me Again
One year after the Sovereign entered Charleston Harbor, I stood on Pier 6 again.
This time there were no reporters.
No security convoy.
No shocked ex-husband watching from a tower.
Just sunset over the water.
Vale Harbor Partners had completed its first major terminal redevelopment that afternoon.
Three hundred new jobs.
Independent financing.
Under budget.
Ahead of schedule.
I heard footsteps behind me.
“You're late,” I said.
Elias stopped beside me.
“Forty-three seconds.”
“Still late.”
“I brought champagne.”
“That may save you.”
Our relationship had changed slowly.
Painfully slowly.
Coffee became dinner.
Dinner became weekends.
But I refused to remarry him.
Not because I wanted revenge.
Because I wanted certainty.
Elias understood.
For once, he didn't rush me.
He opened the bottle.
“To Vale Harbor.”
I raised my glass.
“To everyone who said it wouldn't work.”
“That includes me.”
“Yes.”
“Should I leave?”
“No.”
We touched glasses.
A horn sounded across the harbor.
I froze.
Elias looked toward the water.
“Oh, no.”
The Sovereign appeared beyond the marina.
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I may have been informed.”
The yacht approached.
Damiano stood dramatically on the upper deck.
I could see his grin from the pier.
“He's ridiculous.”
“He terrifies half the East Coast.”
“He cheated at Monopoly until he was twenty-six.”
“I'll remember that next time he threatens me.”
“Don't.”
The yacht docked.
Damiano descended first.
My father followed.
Aunt Bianca behind him.
“What are all of you doing here?” I demanded.
My father looked offended.
“My daughter completes a hundred-million-dollar project and expects us to stay home?”
“It was ninety-two million.”
Damiano hugged me.
“She's becoming humble.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don't.”
Then he noticed Elias.
His expression flattened.
“Mercer.”
“Moretti.”
One year had improved their relationship only slightly.
Damiano looked at me.
“Why is he here?”
Elias answered.
“She invited me.”
Damiano looked betrayed.
“After everything I've done for you?”
I pushed him toward the yacht.
“Go bother someone else.”
“No.”
“Damiano.”
“Fine.”
He joined our father.
Elias watched them leave.
“I don't think he'll ever like me.”
“He doesn't.”
“Helpful.”
“You asked.”
We walked toward the yacht.
Halfway there, Elias stopped.
“Serena.”
I turned.
He looked nervous.
Actually nervous.
“What?”
“A year ago, I asked you for a second chance.”
“Yes.”
“You said I didn't deserve one.”
“You didn't.”
“I know.”
He reached into his jacket.
I immediately pointed at him.
“Don't you dare kneel.”
His hand stopped.
I laughed.
Elias laughed too.
“No ring.”
He removed a small envelope.
“What is it?”
“The original divorce papers.”
I stared at them.
“I kept my copy.”
“Why?”
“To remember.”
“That seems healthy.”
“It wasn't.”
He tore them in half.
Then again.
And again.
The pieces fell into a nearby trash bin.
I stared at him.
“Dramatic.”
“I've spent too much time around your brother.”
“Dangerous.”
Then Elias became serious.
“I don't want our old marriage back.”
I said nothing.
“I don't want the woman who made my coffee while I ignored her. I don't want the wife who stood quietly at my dinners because I never bothered asking what she wanted.”
His voice remained steady.
“I want the woman standing in front of me.”
My throat tightened.
“Elias—”
“I know who you are now.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He stopped.
“You're still learning.”
A small smile appeared.
“Then let me keep learning.”
I looked past him.
My father was pretending not to watch.
Damiano wasn't pretending at all.
Aunt Bianca slapped his arm and told him to turn around.
I laughed.
Then looked back at Elias.
“No proposal tonight.”
“Understood.”
“No giant diamond.”
“Okay.”
“No announcing anything to my family.”
“Absolutely.”
“And if we ever marry again—”
His eyes widened.
I held up a finger.
“**If.**”
“Right. Very large if.”
“We start from the beginning.”
“What does that mean?”
I held out my hand.
He looked at it.
“It means you meet me again.”
He took my hand.
“Elias Mercer.”
I smiled.
“Serena Moretti.”
He raised an eyebrow.
I corrected myself.
“Serena Vale.”
His smile widened.
“Nice to meet you, Serena Vale.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
Behind us came a familiar voice.
“Can I turn around now?”
I closed my eyes.
“Damiano!”
“What? I'm missing the ending!”
Everyone laughed.
Even my father.
Elias squeezed my hand.
A year earlier, I had stood on this same pier while my brother knelt before me and welcomed a princess home.
But I understood now that I hadn't come home to a yacht.
Or money.
Or the Moretti name.
I had come home to myself.
Elias had once divorced me because he thought I was ordinary.
Maybe I had once believed being extraordinary required proving him wrong.
It didn't.
The best thing that happened after my divorce wasn't watching Elias discover who my family was.
It wasn't seeing Leonard Voss lose everything he had tried to build on lies.
It wasn't even watching Charleston freeze when Damiano Moretti dropped to one knee.
It was learning that I didn't need anyone else's name to make mine matter.
I squeezed Elias's hand and stepped onto the yacht.
Damiano raised a champagne glass.
“To Princess Serena!”
“Don't call me Princess.”
My father raised his glass.
“To Serena Vale.”
That one I accepted.
Elias leaned closer.
“Welcome home.”
I looked at my family, my company headquarters glowing across the harbor, and the man beside me who finally understood that loving me meant seeing me rather than possessing me.
Then I smiled.
May you like
“I already am.”
THE END
