Updated Apr 16, 2026 • ~11 min read
Chapter 28: The Wedding
Matthias
Matthias wakes up on his wedding day to Sofia jumping on the bed at six in the morning, her flower girl dress already on (how she managed that by herself, Matthias has no idea), shouting “IT’S WEDDING DAY!” with the kind of enthusiasm that makes sleep absolutely impossible.
“Yes, it is,” Matthias agrees, catching Sofia mid-bounce and pulling her into a hug. “Are you excited?”
“SO excited!” Sofia announces. “I get to throw flowers and everyone will watch and Mama will be beautiful and you’ll cry probably because you always cry when you’re happy.”
“Probably,” Matthias admits, because his daughter knows him too well at this point.
Luna emerges from the bathroom already showered and partially ready, her hair in curlers and makeup half-done, and she laughs at the sight of Sofia in her dress six hours before the ceremony.
“Baby, you can’t wear your dress all day,” Luna says gently. “You’ll get it dirty. Let’s put it back on the hanger until this afternoon, okay?”
“But I want to practice!” Sofia protests.
“You can practice in your regular clothes,” Matthias negotiates. “Save the dress for when all our guests arrive. It’ll be more special that way.”
Sofia considers this logic and eventually agrees, allowing Luna to carefully remove the dress and hang it back up while Matthias starts coffee and tries not to think about how in six hours he’s going to be married, officially and legally bound to the woman he loves, creating a family that’s permanent and real and everything he never knew he wanted.
The morning passes in a blur of activity—final vendor confirmations, Greta arriving early to help with setup, Carmen showing up with mimosas and the bachelorette party energy she’s been carrying since she became maid of honor, Matthias’s college friends arriving to help arrange chairs in the backyard and string lights and transform their normal outdoor space into something magical.
At noon, Matthias is banished to the upstairs bedroom to get ready while Luna takes over the master suite, and Sofia bounces between both rooms delivering messages and “helping” in ways that create more chaos than assistance but that everyone tolerates because she’s adorable and it’s her parents’ wedding day.
“Daddy, Mama says you’re not allowed to see her until the ceremony!” Sofia reports breathlessly, appearing in Matthias’s doorway for the fifth time. “She says it’s bad luck!”
“I know, sweetheart,” Matthias says, adjusting his tie in the mirror. “I’ll see her when she walks down the aisle.”
“Aisle” is a generous term for the path they’ve created through their backyard, lined with white chairs and the flowers Helene arranged (simple and beautiful, exactly what Luna wanted), leading to an arch covered in spring blooms where Matthias will stand and watch Luna walk toward him and promise her forever.
At two o’clock, guests start arriving—Carmen and her kids, Greta and her family, Matthias’s college friends and their partners, Luna’s coworkers who’ve become genuine friends, the daycare teachers who helped raise Sofia, a curated group of people who actually matter instead of business obligations and social climbing.
Helene arrives looking elegant in pale blue, and she finds Matthias in his upstairs exile to offer a rare display of maternal affection—kissing his cheek and telling him he looks handsome and that she’s proud of him for building this family.
“She’s perfect for you,” Helene says simply. “I should have seen that from the beginning.”
“Better late than never,” Matthias says, and they share a moment of understanding that feels like healing, like maybe his mother is finally ready to be the grandmother Sofia deserves and the mother-in-law Luna can actually build relationship with.
At two-thirty, music starts playing in the backyard—a string quartet that Greta arranged, playing something classical and beautiful—and Matthias takes that as his cue to head downstairs and take his position under the flower arch, his hands already shaking with nerves and anticipation and overwhelming emotion.
The backyard looks magical—spring blooms everywhere, fairy lights strung between trees even though it’s afternoon and they won’t light up until later, chairs arranged in intimate rows with their closest people filling them, and at the back of the aisle Matthias can see Carmen in her maid of honor dress, Greta beside her as bridesmaid, and Sofia practically vibrating with excitement in her princess flower girl dress clutching a basket of rose petals.
The music changes to something softer, more romantic, and that’s Sofia’s cue—she starts down the aisle with intense concentration, carefully dropping rose petals exactly as she practiced, and then halfway down she apparently decides careful is boring and just dumps the entire basket in one spot, skipping the rest of the way to Matthias while the guests laugh with genuine delight.
“I got tired of going slow,” Sofia stage-whispers to Matthias, and he has to bite back a laugh.
“You did perfect,” Matthias whispers back. “Now stand right here and watch Mama, okay?”
Carmen walks down next, beaming with happiness for her best friend, and then Greta follows, both of them taking their positions on the opposite side of the aisle—and then the music swells into something that makes Matthias’s breath catch because this is it, this is the moment, this is when Luna appears.
And she does.
She’s walking down the aisle alone—no father to give her away because she’s giving herself away, choosing this independently, choosing Matthias and their family with full autonomy—and she’s wearing a simple white dress that’s elegant without being ostentatious, her dark hair loose around her shoulders with flowers woven through, and she’s so beautiful that Matthias actually has to blink back tears because this woman, this incredible woman is about to become his wife.
Luna’s eyes find his halfway down the aisle and her face breaks into a smile that’s just for him, intimate and loving and full of promise, and Matthias smiles back through his tears because Sofia was right—he does cry when he’s happy, and he’s never been happier than this moment watching Luna walk toward their future.
When Luna reaches the arch, she takes Matthias’s offered hands, and they stand there facing each other with Sofia between them (she insisted on this position, wanted to be part of the ceremony instead of just an attendant), and the officiant begins speaking about love and commitment and choosing family.
But Matthias is barely listening to the official words because he’s looking at Luna, cataloging this moment—the way the afternoon sun catches in her hair, the way her hands shake slightly in his, the way Sofia is looking up at both of them with such joy and pride that she’s part of this.
“The couple has chosen to write their own vows,” the officiant announces, and Matthias takes a deep breath because this is it, the words he’s been writing and rewriting for weeks, trying to capture everything he feels for Luna and their family.
“Luna,” Matthias starts, and his voice is already rough with emotion. “Four years ago, I found you and lost you in the same night. I thought that was the end of our story—one perfect evening and a lifetime of regret that I couldn’t find you again. But it wasn’t the end. It was just the beginning. Because you gave me the greatest gift when you gave me Sofia. And then you gave me something even more precious—a second chance. You let me into your life and her life when you had every reason to keep me out. You trusted me to be her father and your partner. You showed me what family means and what love looks like and what I want for the rest of my life.”
Matthias pauses to wipe tears from his face while Luna cries openly and Sofia tugs on his jacket and whispers “You’re doing good, Daddy.”
“I won’t make the mistake of losing you again,” Matthias continues. “I promise to wake up next to you every morning and choose you every day. I promise to be the father Sofia needs and the partner you deserve. I promise to love you through the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, the ordinary moments and the extraordinary ones. You and Sofia are my everything. My family. My home. My forever.”
Luna is full-on sobbing now, and Matthias hands her a tissue from his pocket (he came prepared) before the officiant nods for her to share her vows.
“Matthias,” Luna begins, her voice shaking but strong. “You came back. After four years of silence, after I’d convinced myself you were just a beautiful memory, you came back. And you could have just been Sofia’s father—that would have been enough, that would have been more than I expected. But you became so much more. You showed up every single time you said you would. You read parenting books and learned how to talk to a three-year-old and built Sofia a princess castle room with your own hands. You proved you were serious about being her father, about being in our lives, about building something real instead of just claiming biological rights.”
Luna pauses to wipe her own tears, and Matthias can see their guests are mostly crying too—Carmen openly weeping, Helene dabbing at her eyes discreetly, Greta sniffling into a tissue.
“You fought for us,” Luna continues. “Even when I made it difficult. Even when I kept walls up and refused to trust you. You kept showing up, kept proving yourself, kept choosing us until I finally believed it was real. You became the father Sofia needed and the man I love. And I’m so grateful that four years ago you promised to call and then life got complicated and we lost each other, because finding you again made this even more precious. This isn’t just young love or chemistry—this is choosing each other with full knowledge of who we are and what we’re building together. This is choosing family. This is choosing forever.”
“Forever,” Matthias echoes, and he’s smiling through his tears because this is everything, this moment is everything he’s ever wanted.
The officiant leads them through the legal elements—the declarations of intent, the exchange of rings (Matthias slides Luna’s wedding band on with shaking hands while she does the same for him, both of them crying and smiling), and then finally, finally, the words Matthias has been waiting for.
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss—”
“KISS NOW!” Sofia interrupts before the officiant can finish, and everyone laughs, the moment of gravity breaking into pure joy.
Matthias doesn’t need to be told twice—he pulls Luna into his arms and kisses her while their guests cheer and Sofia bounces excitedly beside them and somewhere cameras are capturing this moment but all Matthias cares about is this: kissing his wife, hearing their daughter’s laughter, feeling the rightness of this family they’ve created.
They’re married.
Luna Vega is now Luna Wolfe.
Their family is official, legal, permanent.
The reception that follows is exactly what they wanted—intimate and joyful, more family dinner party than formal event. Helene’s catering is perfect without being pretentious, the backyard filled with laughter and conversation and Sofia running around with the other children while the adults celebrate.
Matthias dances with Luna to their first dance song (something sappy and romantic that makes them both cry again), and then he dances with Sofia who insists he lift her up so her feet don’t touch the ground, and then surprisingly his mother asks to dance with him and they have a moment of genuine connection that Matthias never expected.
“You chose well,” Helene says simply. “She makes you happy. Sofia makes you happy. This family makes you happy. I’m sorry I didn’t see that immediately.”
“You see it now,” Matthias says. “That’s what matters.”
As the sun sets and the fairy lights come on and the party continues into evening, Matthias finds a quiet moment to just watch—Luna laughing with Carmen, Sofia showing off her flower girl dress to anyone who’ll admire it (being in the wedding has become her favorite conversation piece), Greta and Helene actually talking civilly, all their favorite people gathered in celebration—and he feels overwhelmingly grateful.
One night four years ago changed his entire life.
One perfect woman who got pregnant and raised his daughter alone and then gave him the chance to prove he deserved them both.
One three-year-old who calls him Daddy and made him realize what actually matters.
One family, chosen and built and fought for and absolutely perfect.
Luna finds him then, takes his hand and pulls him back into the celebration, and they dance together under the fairy lights while Sofia insists on dancing between them, and Matthias knows with absolute certainty that this is what happiness looks like.
Not wealth or business success or any of the things he used to think mattered.
This.
His wife.
His daughter.
His family.
Forever.
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