Novel Update
Chapter 475
Chapter 0475
"You're all welcome to stay for cake and champagne if you're not too put off by the whole experience," I said with a small smile. "But no, it's not a real engagement party. We just needed a way to get Marcus to come to the house before he left the country again." I paused, feeling a bit guilty, then added, "You should all take your gifts back, by the way. Since we haven't actually gotten engaged."
"Would you like to?" Noah suddenly said from behind me. "Get engaged, I mean."
My eyes widened, and I felt my heart stop in my chest. turned slowly-and there he was. On one knee in the middle of the driveway. With a little velvet box in his hand.
I was too frozen to move, too frozen to speak, too astounded to even notice the excited murmurs from the nearby guests or the flash of Emily's camera.
The ring he held out to me was delicate, the tiniest pink diamond set in a thin silver band. Plain and practical, but feminine. Me. Or rather, the woman I had become.
"Noah, I..." I didn't know what to say. All I could do was stare at him, then the ring in his hands, then the one on my own finger.
"You didn't really think I'd let you go to bed tonight without a new ring, did you?" Noah whispered, his eyes glimmering in the light of the moon shining through the clouds. "We went to all this trouble to throw this party..."
I swallowed hard, feeling for all the world as if my throat had closed up.
He was proposing to me. For real this time. With a ring that was empty, free of old memories and waiting
to be filled with new ones.
Finally, all I managed to murmur was, "What should I do with the old ring?"
A chuckle rippled through the crowd. Noah laughed too, rising and closing the distance between us. "Can I assume that was a 'yes'?" he whispered.
I nodded vehemently, suddenly feeling my face heat. "Y-Yes. It was a yes. I want to marry you." My heart pounded, and I added, "Again."
With a grin as wide as the crescent moon itself, Noah slipped the old ring off of my finger and replaced it with the new one. The guests swooned and cheered as he cupped his hand at the back of my neck and tugged me closer, pressing a warm, tender kiss to my lips. I nearly melted in his arms.
When we pulled apart, my eyes fell back to the old engagement ring in his hands. I remembered when he had given it to me; had felt like nothing more than a courtesy, a necessary gift to make the arranged marriage feel more official.
Nothing at all like this ring, which felt heavy with the weight of love and promise.
"What should we do with it?" I whispered.
Noah glanced up at the crowd. "I'm assuming no one here would like a cursed old ring," he laughed, to
which many of the ladies clutched their necklaces and stepped away as if the thing might ruin their relationships from afar.
Even Viona moved against Drake a little, shaking her head. Drake laughed and draped his arms around her shoulders. "No way, man," he said. "You can toss that thing in a river for all I care."
Noah and I looked at each other, clearly having the same thought at the same time.
"We don't have a river," I said, "but we have the next best thing."This material belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
The next thing I knew, Noah and I were laughing, running hand-in-hand across the moonlit lawn. We made our way toward the small man-made pond that sat near the woods, which had become overgrown with cattails and snapping turtles over the years. We stopped by the shore, a little breathless from laughter.
I took the old ring and looked up at Noah. "You're sure you want to do this?" I asked.
He nodded, beaming, and pressed the ring into my palm. It felt heavy and cool against my skin. Together?" he asked, wrapping his hand around my fingers.
I grinned and pulled our hands back. "Together."
As one, we launched the ring into the pond. It sailed through the air in a high arc, the diamond catching the pale light of the moon one last time before it plopped into the water with a satisfying splash.
The moment it hit the surface, Noah dipped me low.
And my face turned as pink as my new ring as he kissed me there, in front of everyone.