We all looked up at the small little chapel. At least Kenna would be at my side and Nate at Matt's. Both Nate and Matt had left their phones with Maverick, who was running circles around Vegas. We purposely avoided telling him where we were going, just in case there were tracers on one of the phones. It sounded so paranoid, but in light of the hotel and how Matt's father and Chelsea both had gained access, this was the safer option.
Justin was waiting at the airport, so if they tried to track his phone, it would look like he was leaving. Jen's flight was about to land, and we promised we would meet up with them after they had their moment. Justin planned on proposing and getting married later on tonight if Jen said yes.
We were telling Nate the truth about my mom, and I told Matt that it would be best to do it together and that we had to tell him before we married. I also didn't want Nikki to have to keep secrets.
The little chapel we chose was off the strip, a little further out from all the Vegas glitz and glam and less likely to attract attention. "Nate, I need to tell you something, something that's important and something I didn't know until this morning. Nikki knows because she found out the same time as me, and I don't want you to hold this against her; it wasn't her secret to tell, it was mine, and she was only respecting that. She has been the only family I have had in the last two months." I told him honestly, feeling a little teary again. Matt stood next to me with his arm around me, encouraging and supporting me while my hands shook with nerves, trying to get it all out.
"I'm not sure how exactly to say this, so I want you to read something for me first. I read it for the first time this morning. Please be gentle with it though; it's the last words my mother wrote to me before she passed." He took the letter, still very confused, handling it with care, but reading the weight of the moment, he sat down on the bench under the lone tree we had been standing under and started reading.
He read ... reread; he looked up, shook his head, and reread it again as if memorizing it line for line and looked up at me again. His hands shook with rage, but he was careful with my mother's last words and handed them back to me. "You're Carol's daughter? My dad's sister?" He looked at me more carefully then. He looks up at Matt. "She showed you this?" Matt nods
Nate stood up and took the step toward me and engulfed me in his arms tightly. I don't know when the first tear fell, but they were coming fast now. "Dad's spent years looking for her. You looked familiar to Maverick because of the sketch he drew from an old photo of her; it was Dad's gift from him and still sits in a frame on the wall of his office. It was a few years ago that he drew it, but you look like her. What happened?"
"Cancer" I swallowed past the lump in my throat and blew my nose on the tissue Matt had passed me. "I started in her lungs; she never smoked a cigarette in her life, but it started there. By the time they opened her up a month after the diagnosis, it was everywhere, all her major organs and glands, draining the life out of her slowly. There was nothing they could do, no way to fight it. She really tried for seven months, and then two months ago she couldn't fight anymore. Her body just gave out, and I put her to rest. " I cried harder, remembering sitting in the bed next to her, holding her hands as the machine was turned off, her body had taken its last breath, and her heart had stopped working. She was half the size she had been by then, small, frail, and breakable, no longer the strong superhero of my childhood.
Nate held me gently. I did not see the look pass between him and Matt at that point, the subtle shake of Matt's head in an unanswered question. "Are you sure this is what you want to do, Kenna? Are you sure you're not just rushing into this to save Matt from something your mother once had to experience? It doesn't have to go down this way if you don't want it to." He bluntly asked.
I lifted my head and smiled at him. "I'm doing this for the right reason, I promise. Besides, Matt's only asked me 4 times now; I think the 5th time he might think I don't like him if I turn him down again."
"This better not blow up in our faces. You give me your word you will protect her, Matt. History doesn't repeat itself? You keep her safe." He looked at Matt, taking him in. "Does all of your family know already?" He asked Matt.
"They are flying here tomorrow. I think some groundwork is best laid with them first before I tell them everything. Let them get to know Kenna first." Nate stared Matt down.
"I think Great Gramps had better be here too and my folks. We're going to need backup to get through this. When the shit hits the fan, we're playing a game that was planned out before we even realized we had pieces on the board that could get hurt, pieces we care about." He looked over at Nikki, completely smitten. There was true affection there and the start of something.
We walked to the chapel in silence; my nerves were starting to kick in, and I could feel my anxiety climb. I knew this was the right choice. I could see myself growing old with Matt; I could see myself sitting on a porch swing drinking coffee, holding hands, and laughing, lines appearing around Matt's and my eyes, slowly growing old together. I saw children and one day even grandchildren, and I embraced it. This was my future, and I was going to hold onto it and fight for it.