AnnaMaria
y one who didn’t use me… was you,” he said softly, stepping forward on his own two feet.
I barely breathed. He reached for my hand, his voice breaking for the first time. “Thank you for saving my life. For believing me when I gave you no reason to.”
I smiled through tears. “Maybe it took falling together for me to really see you.”
For the first time, he laughed — not bitterly, but freely.
A Second Chance at Love
A year later, we married again — this time, not in a golden ballroom, but by the sea in Monterey, California. The waves whispered against the shore, and the air smelled like salt and new beginnings.
There was no wheelchair this time. No hidden truths. Just Ethan walking beside me, hand in hand.
My mother wept quietly in the front row. I don’t know if it was regret or relief, but it didn’t matter anymore. I’d learned that love built on lies collapses — but love born from truth endures.
As the sun dipped below the ocean, Ethan whispered, “Falling with you was the best mistake I ever made.”
And maybe, just maybe, that’s how real love begins — not with perfection, but with two broken people learning to stand tall together.
