Chapter 10 - The Garden of Beginning
One year later.
The summer sun was high and brilliant over the Valley.
The air was filled with the sweet scent of blooming jasmine, fresh cut grass, and hot cherry pies baking in outdoor ovens.
We weren't at the Greenfield Estate. We weren't at a country club. We were standing in the backyard of a charming, broad-porched farmhouse sitting on three acres of green land right in the heart of the Valley—the home Nick and I had designed and built with our own hands over the past eight months.
Today was our one-year wedding anniversary.
In the backyard, two long wooden tables were set up under the shade of ancient oak trees. There were no tuxedoed waiters, no formal seatings, and no champagne towers. Instead, there were large platters of homemade grilled barbecue, iced tea jugs, fresh garden salads, and local cider.
My mother was sitting at the head of the main table, laughing uproariously as Arthur Vance—wearing a simple linen shirt and straw hat—tried to teach my father how to play classical chess on a hand-carved wooden board.
Sarah was running around with a digital camera, taking pictures of Nick’s college friends, who were playing casual lawn games with my cousins from the Valley.
I stepped out onto the back porch, carrying a tray of fresh lemonade.
My hair had grown back significantly over the past year. It now rested comfortably around my collarbones—a thick, healthy, luminous shoulder-length style that danced in the summer breeze. It wasn't the twenty-four-inch braid from my wedding day, but I loved it infinitely more. This hair had survived a storm. This hair represented my strength.
Nick walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back against his chest. He buried his face in my hair, inhaling deeply.
"Happy anniversary, Mrs. Vance," Nick murmured softly, kissing the side of my neck.
"Happy anniversary, Mr. Vance," I smiled, leaning back against his warm body.
"Look at them," Nick said, nodding toward the garden where Arthur was currently shouting in victory after taking my father’s king. "I don't think I've seen my grandfather laugh this much in thirty years."
"He was lonely, Nick," I said softly. "Martha isolated him because she wanted his money. Now he has a real family."
"We all do," Nick said quietly.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box. He opened it, revealing a stunning, simple gold necklace holding a tiny, polished gold charm shaped like a pair of delicate shears, set with a small diamond in the center.
I looked at the charm, letting out a soft, surprised laugh. "Is that... scissors?"
"It’s to remind us," Nick said, his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my heart leap just like it did when we were seventeen years old. "It’s to remind us that no matter what anyone tries to cut away from us—our hair, our dignity, our money—they can never cut away who we are. They can never break what we built."
He carefully fastened the golden chain around my neck. The small charm rested right over my heartbeat, warm and solid against my skin.
Arthur Vance looked up from his chess game across the lawn, waving his silver-headed cane in the air toward us. "Hey! You two lovebirds! Stop flirting and bring the lemonade over here! My new grandson-in-law is about to beat me!"
Nick laughed loudly, grabbing the pitcher from the table and taking my hand in his.
"Ready to go back into the party?" Nick asked, looking at me with a smile that brightened the entire sky.
May you like
"I'm already home," I replied.
Hand in hand, we walked down the porch steps together, leaving the shadows of the past behind us, stepping into the warm, endless sunshine of our new life.
