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Click here"I will, momma."
I walked up the aisle, hanging on dad's arm and with mom close beside me. Everyone was looking at me. Everyone was welcoming - smiling, clapping quietly, or nodding in approval. As I got to the front, the boys ran over and hugged me, tightly. Carl was as tall as I was and well on his way to matching his father.
"We, love you mom!"
"Welcome back mom!"
"We missed you, mom!"
How could I ever have done anything to jeopardize this!
Finally they let go and hurried back to their seats. Thomas grinned at me and said, "Hurry up and marry dad, mom, and we can get to the party. There's going to be cake!" I laughed and nodded. Mom leaned close and said, "I made the cake." I whispered back, "Thank you," and gave her a hug.
Dad finished walking me up to the front, and mom pinned the hanging lace up so I was not peering at the world through thread. They both kissed me, and I looked up.
I handed the bouquet to Annie, and she gave me a huge wink. I managed to mouth back, 'Thank you,' and then added, 'Best sister, ever'.
I faced Dave, lost my heart in those kind, loving eyes, and I knelt down.
"What are you doing?" he asked, perplexed.
"I promised myself that if I ever managed to face you again, I would get down on my knees and tell you how very, very sorry I am for hurting you. For betraying you and my vows. And for giving away what was only yours. And for running away rather than face the music."
Dave smiled, and knelt down in front of me. He took my hands, a touch I had never hoped to feel ever again, and said, "And I thought you should have a new engagement ring, since you had to pawn the first one." He slid a small diamond onto my finger, set on a slender, elegant band. He winked. "The wedding rings are identical in design, but brand new. We are starting over. We cannot go back to what we had, but I believe we can make something brand new that can be better. Deal?"
"Deal."
"Now I think our first task is helping each other up, since neither of us is as young as we once were."
We managed to get up, holding tightly to each other, as the audience, our friends and family, chuckled, and then burst into cheers and applause.
Father Ambrose entered from behind the vine covered trellis and stood in front of us. He looked at me sternly, but melted a little at my contrite, teary smile. "Have you been to confession recently?" he whispered to me. I nodded slightly, "Last week, Father, and my penance is complete." He nodded and then looked over our shoulders at the assembly. "In the eyes of the church, this couple are still husband and wife, so I am officiating, not as an official
Church witness, but as a Justice of the Peace for the state of Pennsylvania to renew their civil marriage. Given the unusual circumstances, I am giving this couple," he glanced at his watch, "five minutes to talk to each other and convince me that they are sincere." He looked at us expectantly.
"Dave, you are the most thoughtful and wonderful husband any woman could have. I am truly, deeply, terribly sorry for what I did. And I thank you for your forgiveness - and trust. I promise you, and God, it is not misplaced."
"Melissa, I never want to experience pain like that again, but try as I could, I couldn't hate you. You were the victim of a very skilled and very successful serial seducer. I said on my sign that we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we do, but I think you, I think all of us, have been punished enough. I forgive you. Let's work on love, now."
"And I guess I have to forgive Ann for giving me away," I glanced over at Annie, who lifted an eyebrow and shook her head.
"She didn't give you away. I heard not one word from her lips - I heard them all from you."
"Me?"
Dave nodded. "I had been shopping and was dropping off a bag of groceries and checking in on Ann. She invited me to have a cup of coffee. We were sitting, chatting, when you called. She put her phone on speaker. The pencil scratchings you heard was us passing notes back and forth. When you arrived yesterday, Ann's phone was on and I was listening to you. There were so many times I just wanted to reach through and hug you. I heard how remorseful you were and I believed, deep in my heart, we could make it work. I was the one who texted Ann and let her know I had heard enough, and the wedding was a 'Go'." He looked a bit sheepish. "Keeping you in the dark until the very last minute, well, was kind of getting payback for you standing all of us up at our intervention session. And I'm - half - sorry about that." And he gave me his signature lopsided, quirky smile again that told me that everything would be alright.
"And," he added, "We'll be honeymooning in the South Pacific for two weeks." Then came another 'Dave' grin at the ironies of life. "We may be the only couple going off on a honeymoon who have counselling already set up for the day after we get back." There were a few chuckles from the crowd.
"How are we affording another South Seas trip?"
"Courtesy of Ann. She set aside some of Peter's insurance money and told me that it was to return the favor if I ever got married again."
I turned around and hugged my wonderful, wonderful sister, and whispered, "Thank you," in her ear as I felt her tears on my neck. I turned back to my once and future husband and whispered, "I have a lot of serious ass-kissing to do, and we should get started as soon as possible." We grinned at each other and turned back to Father Ambrose.
"Okay, I'm convinced. So I will say, dearly beloved we are gathered today to RE-join this man and this woman in marriage..."
And all we heard, as we tearfully smiled at each other, were our whispered 'I do's', and whether we heard Father or not, we were kissing right afterwards, because it was long, long overdue.
THE END
Thank you for fighting your way to the bitter end, and I hope that even if you are firmly in the BTB camp, that I managed to set up a reconciliation which is reasonably believable within the story parameters.
- COMMENTS
olddave5121 days agoI love both versions, First was 4.6 stars... the second 5,00 stars!
I felt like it was a test who was marring Dave? At first it could be Matt's widow, Nah, Maybe Ann? Nah, Then the lace on the hat and Ann's being the Matron of Honor I got it! It was a surprise re marriage!
Too bad it wasn't in Texas the husband who took out Matt, would have gotten a reduced sentence!
I makes me wonder I wonder if I am still married to my first wife? You have given me an Idea for a new reconciliation story!
She WAS punished, psychologically
Cito22about 2 months agook, this is my 3rd time reading this through and I know I have to be the only one with this opinion, especially after story 2. I DID like both endings. Its the middle i have issues with. She was not punished. She was in a self-imposed exile. Well too bad for another one of her bad decisions. Dave should have, at the least, been dating another eligible woman and not pining for an ex wife that couldnt even do the right thing in the end and just upped an vanished, on all things, her own children because she had been caught. Welllll F you lady. She should have had some major "punishment" for her crap. Just saying.
TrainerOfBimbos3 months agoI think the second rendition of the story was better than the first, although the first wasn't that bad either. I actually thought it was kind of a fresh take on a reconciliation story to be honest and you took an idea that I've been toying with and made it work - basically being Catholic myself, I know that while I may be civilly divorced, unless I get an annulment from the Church, I'm still married. It may be hard for non-observant Catholics to understand and honestly, a lot of Catholics struggle with it as well because we have to live in civil society, but if you have belief and faith, then it's very clear that there is no way to divorce yourself from your spouse.
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That being said, it doesn't really preclude you from not living with them or ever talking to them again, etc, but it does preclude you from ever getting married again.
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Anyway, I actually liked the angle a lot. I felt it was unique and offered a very plausible reason why someone might be able to forgive a long term affair (and indeed, the subsequent mistakes that Mellissa made). That being said, the wedding was a bit over the top at the end, but I think after all of the angst it was a good payoff.
Anonymous4 months agoStopped at page 3, 4 years of cheating and he takes her back and also tells her to have more sex with him? This is a truly pathetic husband, no woman would ever be attracted to a malleable wuss like this.
Anonymous5 months agoWhen I saw THE CHILDREN INVOLVED, I started to read with an eye toward protecting them against the insanity both parents were spewing. Talk about not giving two damns about your kids. Shattered innocence, tension-filled moments with their parents, hateful and angry rhetoric... OP is an idiot for writing the story like this. Just freaking awful.
Anonymous5 months agoI heard once that testosterone has been decreasing in men for years. You certainly make this believable. Good writing. Shit story.
Anonymous6 months agoCrazy at face value. Seems impossible. Bit somehow works, especially the first ending. Swcond ending comes off as highly unrealistic bit is technically not a RAAC, since while they reconcile there also, she pays a high price.
Anonymous6 months agoIn what world do you see a guy reconciling with the wife? She did things with her lover she denied her husband, cheated on him for four years. I can only see the reconciliation happening only if the husband secretly likes to be a cuckold. Geez don't read this people, the original was better.
ncdeepdiver7 months agoI liked the first ending.
In the second version, when Annie said Dave was getting married, I almost quit reading.
I skimmed toward the bottom to rate the story and saw the line about her dad walking her down the aisle, so I went back and picked up where I left off.
I'm glad I did.
Great story and great twist in the second ending!
Anonymous8 months agoSo I read the original to get a feel for the story and then read this with its two versions. I have to say I'm impressed with the quality of writing and how the characters and their emotions and motivations were portrayed. The idea of how to make the storyline work is original and well thought out. I really enjoyed these and feel that the first version is more believable than the second but I can see the second working too. I'd have liked more background on the husband detailing the journey he took to get there which must have been incredibly painful. I can appreciate a BTB when told well and also a good reconciliation story as well. This is a top drawer story and should be celebrated as such. Well done. BardnotBard
illjoy9 months agoNo self-respecting person would take back their spouse if said spouse was cheating x amount of YEARS, Jesus years holy hell.
AllNigher9 months agoI don't know. Excellent writing and I get on the second one she suffered... though hard to believe she'd abandon her children like that. forgiveness is great, but in neither sorry was there any real emotion by the husband or children. I know it happened off page supposedly but the first time you see her in both cases... One after another 4 years... you just say yeah all is good let's get back together without consequences.
And im the first one... the guy is taking responsibility for being tempted and NOT cheating and making that somehow equivalent to her 4 years fucking someone regularly and doing things with and for him she wouldn't do for her husband AND not giving her husband emotional or physical intimacy? No... not ready to get over...
I also always find it hard to believe that the a guy can tempt a faithful wife stray... Or husband. Certainly not getting then to stray weekly or so for 4 years. That's already in them .... and that's something that would be really hard to forgive, which these stories just gloss over... all that pain and heartache.
The second story is even worse.... she planned to abandon her children by fuckimg her way across country and got lucky that only one ride wanted it and accepted a hand job. Who would want that back. The kids are just fine with being abandoned for 4 years? I like a good reconciloation but this really just made it all too easy. T stretches the imagination to breaking. I know you say the second one she had to suffer but did she really? Not from her family they just said yeah you should have come home it was all good... You pit yourself through hell for nothing.
She'll cheat again. This was truly a get out of jail free card in both cases. No significant consequences except what she gave herself. In the first one they even got to track each other. What gives her the right to mistrust him?
Liked the writing and enjoyed the story as a fantasy but just didn't feel believable in any way.
