All Chapters of Reborn to Ruin Him: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

“You want to get married in three weeks?” Xavier stood in my kitchen, coffee in hand, staring at me like I’d suggested something wildly impractical rather than simply decisive. “Why wait longer than that?” I asked, sliding a stack of venue brochures across the counter toward him. “We’ve spent enough of our lives waiting for the right moment to actually live them. I don’t want to wait for perfect. I want us.” Something soft broke across his face, and he set his coffee down to pull me close. “Three weeks it is, then. Whatever you want, however you want it.” We spent the following days in a strange, wonderful blur, the kind of ordinary chaos I’d never once let myself imagine having. Cake tastings that ended in laughter instead of stress. Dress fittings where Victoria cried more than I did. Sofia and Jeremy debating seating charts with the seriousness of diplomats negotiating peace treaties. “You seem happy,” Victoria said one afternoon, helping me sort through flower arrangements at

“You look beautiful. Stop fidgeting.”Victoria’s voice carried equal parts affection and exasperation as she adjusted the final pin in my hair, and I forced my hands still, catching my own reflection in the mirror like I barely recognized the woman staring back.“I can’t help it,” I admitted. “I keep waiting for something to go wrong.”“Nothing is going to go wrong.” Sofia appeared behind me, smoothing the delicate lace at my shoulder. “You’ve survived considerably worse than a wedding, Kara. This is the easy part.”I laughed despite myself, the sound easier and lighter than it had any right to be given how nervous I actually felt. “When you put it that way.”The small chapel Xavier and I had chosen sat just outside the city, simple and unadorned, exactly the quiet ceremony we’d both wanted, no performance, no audience beyond the people who’d actually earned a place in this new life.“Five minutes,” Ashford said, poking his head into the small preparation room, looking uncharacteristi

“Wake up. You’re going to miss the sunrise.”Xavier’s voice, soft and warm against my ear, pulled me slowly out of sleep, and I blinked awake to find him already dressed, sitting on the edge of our bed, sunlight barely beginning to break gold across the horizon outside our open balcony doors.“What time is it?” I mumbled, burying my face deeper into the pillow.“Early. Worth it, I promise.” He tugged the blanket gently away from me, laughing when I groaned in protest. “Come on, Mrs. Nightfall. I didn’t fly us across the world for you to sleep through the best part.”I let him pull me up, grumbling half-heartedly, and followed him out onto the balcony wrapped in nothing but a thin robe, the warm ocean air settling soft and gentle against my skin.The view stole whatever complaint I’d been building. Water stretched endless and calm before us, the sky slowly bleeding gold and pink and soft lavender, the villa’s private stretch of beach empty except for the two of us and the quiet rhythm

“What’s happened with Amara?”I sat on the edge of the bed, phone pressed to my ear, Xavier settling beside me with a steadying hand on my back, morning light still soft through the villa windows.“She reached out to our office yesterday,” Ashford said, his voice carrying careful warmth rather than alarm. “Apparently Diane’s team located her, and word must have traveled faster than anyone anticipated. She called us directly, Kara, before we’d even finished drafting a formal letter of introduction.”My heart lurched, equal parts fear and hope. “What did she say?”“She’s known about you for years.” Ashford paused, letting that settle. “She said your mother wrote to her twice, near the end, trying to reconcile. She never responded to either letter, and she’s spent years regretting that silence.”Tears pricked unexpectedly behind my eyes. “She knew about me? All this time?”“She knew you existed. She didn’t know what happened to your parents, not the details, not until she saw the news co

“Is that her? Is that my mother?”I stood in Ashford’s office, the photograph trembling slightly in my hands, a young woman smiling back at me from decades ago, laughter caught mid-motion, her whole face lit with an easy, unguarded joy I’d never once seen in the few pictures I already owned.“That’s her,” Ashford confirmed gently. “Taken the summer before she met your father, according to what Amara told me.”I traced my finger along the edge of the photograph, studying every detail, the shape of her smile so similar to something I sometimes caught in my own reflection, a resemblance I’d never had anyone to point out before now.“She’s beautiful,” I whispered.“You look remarkably like her,” Ashford said softly. “I noticed it the very first time you walked into my office, though I didn’t feel it was my place to say so until now.”Xavier’s hand found mine, steady and warm, and I looked up to find him watching me with something tender and understanding in his expression.“Ready?” he ask