Chapter 15 - THE DRESS WITHOUT BLOOD
Three years later, Norah stood in the garden of the Costa estate.
The summer sun warmed her face.
A little girl laughed nearby.
“Mommy!”
Norah turned.
Her daughter, Lucia Costa, ran toward her.
Dark curls.
Gray eyes.
A smile that looked exactly like Leo's.
Norah laughed.
“Careful, sweetheart.”
Lucia giggled.
Then Leo appeared.
He lifted their daughter into his arms.
“Trouble?”
Lucia smiled.
“Daddy!”
Leo kissed her cheek.
Norah watched them.
For a moment, she remembered the wedding.
The blood.
The pain.
The fear.
Then she looked at the life they'd built.
She had returned to nursing school.
Completed her training.
And helped open a community clinic.
Leo had continued rebuilding his businesses.
Their family lived more quietly.
More honestly.
That evening, after Lucia fell asleep, Leo found Norah in their bedroom.
She was holding a white dress.
He frowned.
“What is that?”
Norah smiled.
“My wedding dress.”
Leo went still.
The original gown had been cleaned and restored.
The blood removed.
The torn lining repaired.
But Norah had kept it.
Not because she wanted to remember the pain.
Because she wanted to remember surviving it.
Leo stepped closer.
“Do you regret that day?”
Norah looked at him.
For a moment, she thought about the cathedral.
The vows.
The blood on his shirt.
Then she smiled.
“No.”
Leo's eyes softened.
She continued.
“But I wish I'd told you the truth.”
He nodded.
“I wish you had too.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Leo took her hand.
“Do you know what I remember most?”
Norah smiled faintly.
“What?”
He looked at her.
“The moment you woke up in the hospital.”
Her eyes filled.
Leo continued.
“I realized I didn't care about the treaty.”
He swallowed.
“I didn't care about the families.”
He took a breath.
“I just wanted you alive.”
Norah began crying.
Leo kissed her forehead.
“I love you.”
She smiled.
“I love you too.”
Outside, Chicago glittered beneath the night sky.
Inside, their daughter slept peacefully.
And the man who had once married Norah Gallow to end a war held her as though she were the most precious thing in his world.
Because she was.
The first time Leo Costa saw blood on his wedding shirt, he believed he was about to lose everything.
But that terrible moment had become the beginning of something neither of them expected.
A marriage built on truth.
May you like
A family built on love.
And a future they had chosen together.
