Page 185 of Ruined Vows
We walk into the Borrelli Foundation’s annual benefit like we didn’t nearly burn the city to the ground to get here.
People stare. Whisper. Some bow their heads. Some avert their eyes. And that’s when I realize—they don’t see a couple.
They see a kingdom.
We speak to donors, shake hands with billionaires, and smile for photographs that will end up in headlines I’ll never read.
And the whole time, I don’t let go of him. Not once.
He’s mine.
Vukan
She moves like a woman who owns her place at my side—not because I put her there, but because she built it with her bare hands, sassy mouth, fierce independence, and grit.
I walk beside her like I finally understand what it means to leadwithsomeone, notoverthem.
We speak to donors, shake hands with ghosts, and smile for photographs that will end up in headlines I’ll never read.
And the whole time, I don’t let go of her.
Not once.
Because this? This is our coronation.
And she’s the only crown I’ll ever wear.
If love made me slow.
If Bianca made me human.
They’re right.
But what they don’t understand is?—
She didn’t make me weaker. She made me fierce. Because now? I have something tolose.And that changes everything.
I pour myself a drink. Watch the lights blink across the skyline. And start making a list. One by one, I will remind them why I wear the crown.
And why she stands beside me—not behind.
Bianca is unapologetically mine.
64
BIANCA
OMISSIONS
Every time I walk through the new building, I hear the echoes of who I used to be.
The woman who offered a man like Vukan ten dates so she could stay in control. And now I’m standing in the ashes of what I thought control looked like.
I’m surprised, but I’m not afraid. How did I ever think I would win this fight? I don’t want to win it. There was a connection the second our eyes met in the warehouse.
And from the wreckage, we’ve built something stronger than power.
We’ve built trust. We’ve built a future. We built what neither of us could ever imagine.
