Chapter 131 #49: You're Under Arrest
Six months pass in the kind of blur that only comes after everything has already broken and been pieced back together wrong-side-up.
David finishes physical therapy the week before Thanksgiving. The last session ended with him jogging in place on the treadmill while the therapist clapped like he’s just run a marathon instead of simply remembering how to trust his own legs again. When he walks out of the clinic under his own power, I’m waiting in the parking lot with Lucy on my hip and a coffee in both hands. He stops in front of us, takes the cup from my fingers, and kisses me so thoroughly the paper sleeve crinkles between us.
“Still got it,” he murmurs against my mouth.
“Never doubted you,” I tell him, and mean it.
The life insurance check from Malcolm arrived two weeks later. The eight-figure number still feels obscene sitting in my bank account. David immediately called his old financial advisor the same afternoon, then spent the next month quietly buying back Calder Investment shares from panicked board members who still remember the chaos Vincent left behind. The moment he had enough shares to get a seat on the board, the very first thing David advocated for was the name being changed back to Reid Global and since no one had a problem with it, the name change was approved quickly.
Piece by piece, David took back what was always his. Not all of it yet. Not even close. But enough that the name Reid has started meaning something again in boardrooms instead of headlines.
Maya vanished after the recording hit the DA’s desk and an arrest warrant was issued for her. There’s been an extensive search for her but still nothing yet, so we can only hope that she’s slipped out of the country and out of our lives for good.
Sel tells us she’s pregnant on Christmas Eve. We’re at the apartment, under the blinking tree lights, while Lucy is asleep upstairs with her new stuffed whale tucked under her chin. Sel waits until Marcus has his mouth full of gingerbread before she says it.
“Guys... I’m pregnant.”
We all gasp in delighted surprise, but Marcus just freezes. Crumbs fall from his lips as his eyes go wide, then glassy. Then he drops the cookie, pulls her into his lap, and buries his face in her neck, saying no words. Just these quiet, broken sounds that make my own throat close up.
David and I look at each other across the couch. He raises one eyebrow.
I grin. “Big tough guy finally cracks, huh?”
Marcus lifts his head long enough to glare at us through tears. “Fuck off.”
We don’t. We tease him mercilessly for weeks. Every time he reaches for something Sel might want – water, a pillow, her hand – we make exaggerated cooing noises. He’s threatened to move to Alaska more than once. Sel just laughs and rests her palm on the small baby bump that’s starting to show.
By spring the island is ready.
The island David bought years ago for our child Lucian who never got to see it. The paperwork sat in a drawer through the divorce, through the coma, through everything. When David finally signed the closing documents last month he looked at me across the kitchen table and said, “I want to marry you there.”
That was it. No over-the-top grand proposal like he did when we were getting married the first time. Just a simple statement that means more than a million embellished words.
Tears well up in my eyes as I nod, and then throw my hands around him and kiss him.
We fly out the first week of May. Lucy bounces in her seat the whole way, asking if there will be mermaids. Sel rubs her belly and tells her mermaids only show up for good girls who eat their vegetables. Marcus pretends to be annoyed by the whole noise but keeps stealing glances at Sel like he still can’t believe she’s carrying his child.
The island is small. White sand, turquoise water, a single house built into the cliff with windows that catch every sunrise. A little stone chapel sits on the highest point – simple, whitewashed, open to the sea breeze. David had it restored last year without telling me. And when I saw it for the first time my chest ached in the best way.
The morning of the ceremony I stand in front of the mirror in the master bedroom while Sel zips me into the dress. It’s nothing like the first one I wore at twenty-four. It doesn’t even have a veil. Just my hair loose and a single orchid tucked behind my ear, and a small white lace mask covering my eyes.
Sel steps back, her eyes shining. “You look like the version of yourself he always saw.”
I swallow. “Don’t make me cry before I even get there.”
“Too late.” She dabs at her own eyes. “Hormones.”
Lucy bursts in wearing a pale blue dress and bare feet. “Mommy! Daddy says the boats are ready and the flowers are everywhere and Marcus is wearing a tie!”
I laugh. “Tell Daddy I’ll be there in five minutes.”
She runs out again.
Sel takes my hands. “You ready for this?”
“I’ve been ready since the first time he called me Doll in a boardroom and pretended it was professional.”
She hugs me tight. “Then let’s go get you remarried.”
The walk to the chapel is short. Palm fronds rustle overhead. The ocean breathes steady and low. David waits at the altar in a linen suit the colour of sea glass. No tie. Top button undone. When he sees me his whole face softens, then brightens like someone turned up the light inside him.
Marcus stands beside him as best man, looking proud and slightly terrified. Sel takes her place as chief bridesmaid, one hand resting protectively on her stomach.
Lucy sits in the front row with the woman who runs the island’s small staff. She waves at us like we’re on a parade float.
The pastor is a local man with a gentle voice and sun-weathered skin. He smiles when we reach the altar.
“Dearly beloved,” he begins, “we are gathered here today…”
I barely hear the rest. My eyes are stuck on David who's holding both my hands, his thumbs moving in slow circles over my knuckles the way he always does when he’s trying to anchor me.
When it’s time for vows he speaks first.
“Nora.” His voice is low and steady, meant only for me even though everyone can hear. “I promised you once that I’d never let you go. I broke that promise for a long time. I broke a lot of promises. But I kept the one that mattered most... I never stopped loving you. Not when you left. Not when I lost everything. Not when I thought I was dying on that table. Every single day I woke up and chose you again. I’ll keep choosing you every day for the rest of my life. I’ll choose you when it’s easy and when it’s impossible. I’ll choose you when we’re fighting and when we’re laughing and when we’re just sitting in silence watching Lucy sleep. You’re my home. You always have been, and I’m never leaving home again.”
Tears spill down my cheeks before I can stop them, but I don’t bother wiping them away.
“My turn I guess...” I say, causing slight giggles to ripple through the crowd. “David Reid. You infuriating, stubborn, beautiful man. You walked back into my life when I had every reason to hate you and instead you gave me back pieces of myself I thought were gone forever. You fought for me when I couldn’t fight for myself. You loved our daughter before she even knew your name. You gave me second chances I didn’t deserve and then you gave me third ones just because. I promise to love you through every storm and every sunrise. I promise to argue with you when you’re wrong and kiss you when you’re right. I promise to hold your hand when the world feels too heavy and to let you hold mine when I’m the one breaking. I promise to keep choosing you too. Every single day. Until the ocean runs dry and the stars forget how to shine. I love you. I’ve always loved you. I will always love you.”
He gives me that soft smile of his that I've always loved. The one he's always reserved just for me.
The pastor smiles, waits a beat, then continues. “Do you, David Reid, take Nora Ellis to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do,” David says without hesitation.
“And do you, Nora Ellis, take David Reid to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do.”
“Then by the power vested in me by the islands of this sea and the state of New York, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
David cups my face with both hands, thumbs brushing away the last of my tears. Then he kisses me slowly, deeply, full of everything we lost and everything we found again. I taste salt and him and forever.
The small group claps. Lucy says ,”ewwwww" from somewhere close by, which just makes everyone laugh.
We pull apart just enough to breathe. His forehead rests against mine.
“Mrs. Reid,” he whispers. "Fuck, I missed calling you that."
“Still sounds good,” I whisper back.
Just when we think this is it, just when we think we’ve finally beat the odds and are finally getting our happily ever after, suddenly, the doors at the back of the chapel slam open.
The sound echoes off stone walls like a gunshot.
We both turn.
Detective Harlan stands in the doorway wearing a rumpled suit from travel, and a smug expression. Following behind him are three men and one woman in dark windbreakers and FBI letters across their chests. One is holding a folded paper.
Harlan steps forward first. The warrant in his hand catches the sunlight and my heart stops before he can even say the words I know are coming.
“Nora Reid,” he says, using my new name like a weapon. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Elaine Reid and suspected murder of Maya Stewart.”