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Our special day.

All the guests are already seated, and I’m standing at the altar waiting for my beloved.

I never thought it was possible to love someone this much. To the point where that person becomes your air, your entire meaning in life.

Only after meeting Anya did I truly understand what Kirill feels for Vicky, what Makar feels for Dasha... what my father felt for Mom, and for Valentina too.

It’s something unreal.

Then the music starts. Everyone falls silent and holds their breath when my bride appears.

The sight of Anya twists my whole soul with feelings for her. Adrenaline, dopamine, and whatever-the-fuck-else floods my body because I feel like I’m about to burst from the inside. Happiness presses against my eyes and tears start forming on their own.

God, she’s beautiful.

The best. Bright, kind... and at the same time she holds me by the balls so skillfully in her strong little hands that there’s no escaping anymore.

Not that I want to.

Everything about her is perfect for me.

She’s wearing a snow-white stylish dress that shows off her breathtaking figure in the most sinful way possible. And that neckline with my favorite twins...

Black-eyed witch. She definitely bewitched me.

“I love you,” I whisper to my panther and quickly kiss her luscious lips.

She kisses me back.

There are so many feelings in her eyes that they start tearing up too.

The ceremony goes on. They ask us the important questions. We both answer yes, exchange rings, and I greedily kiss my beloved wife, spinning her around in my arms.

Congratulations and confetti rain down on us, but we still don’t let go of each other’s hands, because this isn’t over yet.

There’s still the second part of the ceremony, and honestly, it’s making me even more nervous than the first.

Still standing at the altar, we call Masha and Lukas over to us.

The kids run up congratulating us, and we hug them tightly without any intention of letting go.

“Masha, Luka,” I say to the confused little ones, while Anya squeezes my hand harder. “Today is the day our strong and loving family was created.”

“But without you, this family would be incomplete,” my beloved says in a trembling voice, and I see my girls starting to fall apart from tears.

“Yeah.” I take over before we all completely lose it. “You’re under our guardianship already, but that’s not enough for us. You’re already ours anyway, but still. We want to ask you something.”

I swallow hard.

“Would you agree to become OUR children fully and officially? The adoption papers are already prepared. We only need your consent.”

After a short stunned silence, with tears filling the kids’ eyes too, Luka cracked first and threw his arms around Anya with a loud “Yes!”

Masha just kept staring at us and... crying, covering her mouth with her thin little hand.

“Well, baby girl?” I look at her, my own eyes filling up again for the hundredth time today. “Daughter...”

“Yes!” the girl sobbed out through hiccuping tears, and I pulled my whole family into my arms.

I love them all.

They are all mine.

Now none of them are escaping Yartsev’s love anymore.

Even though it was a joyful day, everyone was crying. Literally everyone.

When the hysterics in my arms finally settled down, I looked at the guests.

Not a single dry face in sight.

Even my father suspiciously kept blinking while hugging a crying Valentina.

“What’s with all of you?” I ask the guests like nothing happened, and they start laughing through their tears. “The Yartsev family just got a whole lot bigger today!”

I laugh happily, and everyone catches our mood.

And I look once more at the treasures in my arms.

My big family.

It didn’t come to me easily. We fought through pain, thorns, and endless trials. But we survived them all.

And I’m grateful to heaven that on that day, it brought all of us together, even under such strange circumstances.

So that in the end, we could find one another... and become a real loving family.