Chapter 17

The celebration lasted hours: press interviews, congratulations from NASA. Charles Archer himself appeared, forced to publicly praise the demonstration while privately seething. Vivian handled it all with grace, but her eyes kept finding Elias in the crowd.Later, when the official events had ended and the media had finally dispersed, she found him alone by the hangar lights. Lily was with Commander Chen, who'd promised to take her for ice cream and regale her with stories of her father's Navy days."You did it," Vivian said, approaching."We did it," Elias corrected. "You gave me a reason to try."They stood in the warm evening air, the last light of sunset painting the sky in shades of gold and pink: the same sky that had taken so much from both of them, the same sky that had somehow brought them together."I never meant it, you know," Vivian said quietly. "That day in my office. When I said I'd marry you if you flew the jet. It was cruel. I was mocking you.""I know," Elias said. "But maybe I can make you mean it now."He pulled something from his pocket: a small box. Inside was a ring, simple and elegant, with a tiny engraved wing on the band.Vivian's breath caught. "Elias...""You helped me remember who I was," he said, kneeling on the tarmac in his flight suit—this man who'd gone from janitor to hero in the span of a single afternoon. "Let me help you forget who you were afraid to be. Marry me. Not because of some mocking challenge, but because somewhere in all this mess, I fell in love with you."Every logical part of Vivian's brain screamed that this was too fast, too dramatic, too risky. But logic had kept her frozen for three years. Logic had built walls that protected nothing and imprisoned everything.So, she did something completely illogical: she said yes.Lily's scream of joy came from behind them, followed by Commander Chen's knowing laugh. They'd been watching, of course. Vivian didn't care. She pulled Elias to his feet and kissed him while the sun set over the airfield, and the jets that had broken them both bore silent witness to their healing.

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