For the first time since seeing him alive, I allowed myself to cry.
Not because everything was suddenly fixed.
It wasn’t.
But because the person I had mourned was standing in front of me.
Alive.
The investigation continued over the following weeks.
The evidence Adrian had collected helped authorities uncover the financial scheme and connect Victor to the events surrounding the crash.
Eventually, Victor was arrested.
Colleen apologized.
Julian apologized.
Adrian apologized more times than I could count.
But apologies couldn’t erase three months of grief.
They couldn’t erase the funeral.
They couldn’t erase the nights I had spent wondering why the person I loved had been taken from me.
I also realized that love doesn’t automatically repair broken trust.
Sometimes trust has to be rebuilt slowly.
Sometimes it takes longer than anyone expects.
I stopped working at weddings for a while.
Every white rose reminded me of that day.
