Then Gabriel did something unexpected.
He stepped back.
And knelt.
Right there in front of the altar.
Not as a disguise.
Not as a performance.
But as himself.
“I don’t know if you still believe in love,” he said softly, “but I would like to start again.”
A pause.
“This time… not as a plan. Not as a mission. But as a choice.”
I looked at him through tears.
At the man who had entered my life as a lie…
And revealed himself as something real.
I laughed softly through my tears.
And I nodded.
Behind us, the church erupted—not in laughter this time…
But in applause.
Because what was meant to be a humiliation…
Had turned into something no one expected.
A beginning.
And for the first time in a very long time…
I wasn’t someone’s revenge.
I wasn’t someone’s victim.
I was someone’s choice.
