Chapter 15 - THE QUEEN OF THE EMPIRE
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One year later, the grand ballroom of the Knox Estate was illuminated by five thousand beeswax candles.
Five hundred powerful mafia bosses, foreign dignitaries, and high-ranking leaders sat in absolute, respectful silence.
Every head was bowed.
Nobody whispered.
Nobody dared to look anywhere except the grand marble staircase.
I stood at the bottom of the altar, dressed in an immaculate black tuxedo, fully healed with my strength greater than ever before.
Beside me stood Tommy Davies, now twenty years old, dressed in a tailored three-piece suit, proudly serving as my legitimate director of coastal shipping operations.
Then the double doors at the top of the landing swung open.
The breath left my lungs in an instant.
Clary walked down the grand staircase, wearing a wedding gown woven from pure white Italian silk and dusted with tens of thousands of microscopic diamonds that caught the candlelight like a galaxy.
A diamond tiara rested upon her dark, lustrous curls.
She didn't look like the frightened, starving girl scrubbing my bathroom floor in wrinkled cotton.
She was the most radiant, formidable queen this underworld had ever witnessed.
She walked toward me with steady grace, her brown eyes locked onto mine with an unshakeable love that had withstood war, fire, and blood.
When she reached the bottom step, I took her small, soft hand into my scarred palm and brought it to my lips.
"You abandoned five hundred guests the first night you saw me," she whispered with a playful, breathtaking smile.
"Tonight, I brought five hundred kings to their knees just to watch me marry you," I answered, sliding the heavy platinum band encrusted with Knox family diamonds onto her finger.
The priest cleared his throat and declared us husband and wife before God and the underworld.
I wrapped my arm around her waist, lifting her against my chest and kissing her with a passion that silenced every dark ghost that had ever haunted my soul.
The entire ballroom erupted into thunderous, deafening applause as five hundred crime lords rose to their feet to honor their new sovereign.
Clary turned toward the cheering crowd, then leaned her head against my shoulder, her voice soft and melodic against my ear.
"Are you happy, my King?"
I looked down at the woman who had conquered my heart with a single song in the shadows.
May you like
"With you beside me, Clary, I don't just rule an empire."
"I finally have a home."
