The Substitute Bride's Bargain
The wanting.
He had wanted her. Had wanted this specific her, the one with the hand under the tablecloth, the one who needed something to hold on the aisle, the one who was not Victoria and had never been Victoria and who was Elena, who had always been Elena underneath the construction. He had wanted that woman with a specificity and a deliberateness that had included taking a photograph to remember what genuine looked like, that had included standing at an altar and recognizing that she was not who he had agreed to marry and choosing to let it happen anyway.