Chapter 29 - The Ring
As the sun began to set, casting a golden hour glow over the bay, I cut the engine of the boat. We drifted silently on the gentle swells.
I walked over to Elena, who was leaning against the railing. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box.
Elena gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. We had been together for years, had built a home and a business, but we had never officially married. I had always felt too broken, too unworthy of asking her to bind her life to my fractured one.
But I wasn't fractured anymore.
I knelt down on the wooden deck of the boat. Lily gasped, running over to stand beside her mother, her eyes wide with excitement.
"Elena," I said, my voice steady and thick with emotion. "You walked into my life when I was nothing but ruins. You didn't run. You stayed, and you helped me build a castle out of the rubble. I don't want to spend another day of this second half of my life without calling you my wife."
I opened the box, revealing a simple, elegant ring holding a sea-green sapphire.
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"Will you marry me?"
Tears streamed down her face. She couldn't speak, so she just nodded frantically, pulling me up from the deck and crashing her lips into mine.
