Page 85 of Clinically Bewitched
He wasn’t angry.
He wasn’t embarrassed.
He was... proud.
Proud of my parents for standing up for themselves.
Proud of me for being their daughter.
And maybe, just maybe, a little bit relieved that his parents had finally been forced to see that their way wasn’t the only way, that their judgments weren’t universal truths, that the world was bigger and stranger and more beautiful than they’d ever allowed themselves to believe.
The universe, I realized, had known exactly what it was doing.
It always did.
Even when the path forward looked like a complete disaster.
Especiallythen.
Chapter Eighteen
Julien
The universe had a sense of humor.
I had known this, theoretically, for several weeks now. Ever since a woman with wild dark hair and an unshakeable belief in cosmic destiny had walked into my presentation and announced that I was her soulmate.
But tonight, watching Athena’s father reveal himself as a billionaire shipping magnate, watching her mother casually mention her three doctorates while I sprayed wine across my mother’s horrified face—tonight, I understood it on a visceral level.
The universe wasn’t just humorous.
It washilarious.
And I was done fighting it.
We left the restaurant in a blur of awkward goodbyes and my parents’ shell-shocked silence. Vivian hugged Athena’s parents with genuine warmth, whispered something in my ear about “letting go,” and disappeared into the night with a knowing smile.
The drive back to my apartment was quiet.
Not uncomfortably quiet. Not the tense silence that had characterized so much of our time together.
Just... quiet.
Athena sat in the passenger seat, her hand resting on the center console, her fingers occasionally tapping out some rhythm only she could hear. The streetlights cast movingshadows across her face, the curve of her cheek, the line of her jaw, the soft fullness of her lips.
My wife.
The thought didn’t send me into a spiral of panic anymore.
It just... was.
A fact. Like gravity. Like the precise number of chambers in the human heart.
Athena was my wife.
And I was done pretending I didn’t want her to be.
“Julien?” Her voice was soft. Uncertain. “Are you okay?”
