When Celeste woke again, everything felt soft.
Warm.
There was no cold concrete beneath her, no rough ropes digging into her skin. Instead, the faint scent of antiseptic filled the air, the steady beeping of machines lulling in the background.
A hospital.
She recognized the pristine white ceiling tiles, the heavy blankets tucked securely around her. Her body felt floaty, disconnected, as if she had been drugged. Her throat was dry, aching.
I’m alive.
Celeste exhaled slowly, her mind still foggy, but one thought stood out through the haze.
Alexander Vale.
Was he the one who ca for her? Did he send those n?
Her lips curled slightly, a whisper of a smirk.
Of course, he did.
The door creaked open, and then he stepped in—the man himself, in all his glory.
Alexander Vale.
Even in his usual composed elegance, there was sothing different about him now. His sharp suit was slightly disheveled, his normally piercing gaze softened, and beneath his eyes were faint shadows, evidence of restless nights. He looked exhausted yet relieved—like a man who had been to war and returned only to find the one thing that mattered still intact.
"You’re awake," he murmured, settling beside her bed and gently taking her hand. His grip was warm, firm, as if reassuring himself that she was real.
Celeste blinked at him, taking in his tired yet breathtaking features. "I’m fine," she assured him, then raised a brow. "But you? You look like you need to be admitted more than I do. When was the last ti you slept?"
A ghost of a smirk tugged at his lips, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a lingering kiss against her knuckles. His touch was reverent, almost desperate, as if he could inhale every trace of her, as if she were the only thing keeping him alive.
Celeste’s breath hitched. This was new.
"W-what’s going on?" she asked, her voice unsure. "Why are you acting like this?"
Alexander let out a slow exhale, his thumb tracing idle circles against her wrist. "When I heard you’d been kidnapped, I thought I’d lost you," he confessed, his voice raw, his gaze locking onto hers with an intensity that made her heart race. "I’ve never been so afraid in my life, Celeste."
She swallowed, suddenly unable to hold his stare. Was this really the sa man who had kept his distance for days? Her pout ca instinctively. "You didn’t even visit after the first ti. Not once. And now you show up like this?"
A guilty look flickered across his face before he sighed. "It wasn’t my intention to stay away," he admitted. "I just . . . I wanted to bring this with when I ca back."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box. The mont he flipped it open, Celeste’s breath caught.
Inside sat a ring, the centerpiece a red diamond—rare, dazzling, and impossible to look away from.
"This isn’t just any diamond," Alexander continued, watching her reaction closely. "It took days to track down, to have it set into a ring worthy of you. That’s why I waited. Because if I was going to do this, I wanted to do it right."
Then, to Celeste’s absolute shock, he got down on one knee.
Her mind blanked.
Wait.
What?
"Celeste Hart," he said, his voice steady yet full of emotion, "will you marry ?"
She gaped at him, at the ring, at the sheer insanity of this mont. "Wait . . . you an . . . you waited for days because of this? Are you seriously proposing right now?"
A small chuckle escaped him, but his gaze remained serious. "I wanted to be certain you knew—there’s no one else for . There never was. There never will be."
He exhaled, the weight of his emotions pressing into every word. "Celeste, I love you. Choose , and I will give you everything—the moon, the stars, even the whole damn universe."
Celeste’s vision blurred with unshed tears. She had been so ready to scold him, to tell him off for making her wait.
But now?
Now, she could only laugh and cry all at once.
"You obsessive idiot," she sniffled, shaking her head. "You didn’t have to go through all that trouble just to prove a point."
Alexander grinned, his expression utterly devastating. "So call it obsession," he murmured, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I call it love without limits."
Celeste let out a shaky laugh before she cupped his face and kissed him, slow and deep, as if answering with her lips before her words even ca.
Finally, she pulled back just enough to whisper, "Yes. I’ll marry you, Alexander Vale. I want no one else but you."
His body tensed slightly, like he almost didn’t believe her, like he had been prepared for anything but the overwhelming relief that flooded through him now.
"Really?" he asked, his voice quieter, almost vulnerable. "Even after you said you’d go back to Ethan?"
Celeste rolled her eyes, her lips quirking into a teasing smile. "I only said that because you seed unsure about . I thought you still wanted Riley."
His brows lifted, amusent flashing in his gaze. "So you were just trying to make jealous?"
She smirked, looping her arms around his neck. "Did it work?"
Alexander chuckled, low and deep, his hands gripping her waist as he pulled her closer. "Oh, it worked," he murmured before crushing his lips against hers.
And this ti, they kissed like they had all the ti in the world.
Alexander didn’t waste a single mont. The day Celeste was discharged from the hospital, he took her straight to the marriage registry office and made her his wife. There was no grand fanfare, no lavish spectacle—just the two of them, hand in hand, exchanging vows that ant more than any extravagant wedding ever could.
But Alexander Vale was never one to settle for anything less than extraordinary when it ca to the woman he loved. Soon after, he set to work planning the most breathtaking wedding the world had ever seen—a celebration so grand it would be spoken of for generations.
Yet, no matter the splendor, the true magic of that day wasn’t in the dazzling lights, the towering floral arrangents, or the elite guests in attendance. It was in the way Alexander looked at Celeste, as if she were the only thing that had ever existed in his eyes.
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