The Monroe Legacy - G.4 Chapter 16 - Something Old

She had the drowning nightmare the night before her wedding and was trying not to read into it. It didn't come naturally to her. She got ready telling herself nothing was wrong, that it was just a stress response ahead of a big life event, but the dark voice in the back of her head kept telling her there was more than one way to drown. 

Lillia loved Noki. She wanted to marry him, to start there family but she couldn't shake the feeling that their comfortable little bubble was actually just the inside of a huge barrel wave, headed towards an inevitable crash. Fortunately her mother and Eva knew her well enough not to try and make her talk about it, instead conversing merrily together about the best of Noki and Lillia's past, their hopes for them and joking about the trials of marriage. With them in her corner, Lillia made it to the venue feeling almost calm and ready for the next chapter. 

Her dad and Oscar were waiting to lead her in, and Rose was peeking impatiently out to get a look at the dress. They'd kept things small, wanting to live within their means and celebrate their hard-won happiness with only those closest to them. 

She'd made it almost all the way down the aisle, finding strength in the warmth on Noki's face, the solid presence of her father beside her when she spotted the stranger in the crowd. The woman looked at her with curiosity, confusion even, before arranging her face into a neutral impression whose similarity to Lillia's almost-husband told her who she must be. Noki's mother had come to Lucky Palms.

She stumbled slightly, blushing and thrown, sure that Mrs Moon must be judging her, finding her lacking and the panic was back. 

Two hours earlier

The moment he saw his mother step out of the taxi, Noki started to think that sending a courtesy wedding invitation home had been a terrible mistake. He'd started to make something worthwhile for himself here in Lucky Palms, he was about to commit to someone truly his equal and join a family with honesty at its core and hard work as their ethic.

He still loved his parents. He missed them, especially his mom, but now he was away from the heavy shadow of the Moon business and the life it dictated to its ruling family, he could see how unhealthy it was. He wasn't going back to that, no apology or plea could undo how he now saw what he'd left behind. Still, he didn't want to fight with his mother on his wedding day.

'I'm not changing my mind Mom.' He was careful to keep his voice gentle but didn't want to waste time getting to the point, if that was why she had come. She looked the same as always, careful surgery had paused her at about 45 for as long as he could remember.

She nodded. 'I didn't think you would, but your father would only let me come if I agreed to pass on a message.'

Anoki sighed. Truly, nothing had changed. He nodded and she handed him a note in his father's spiky, aggressive hand.

'The Moon-Sinclair merger is done, despite your best efforts to destroy it, and I don't think your sister has the balls for what's coming.  Marry this girl if you must, then bring her home. We can train her to be what our empire needs. You make me 120% profit next year and we'll pretend all this never happened.'

He sighed pinching the bridge of his nose against the building pressure of the same demands in another guise and passed the not back to his mother. 

'My answer is no. It's always going to be a no. I want to be my own man, a kind man, I want my wife to be whoever she decides to be, not who she has to be to get by in the society pages and country club circuits. I want my kids to be able to do whatever they want, if they're willing to work for it, not just to be handed whatever money can buy in exchange for tying them to "our empire".

His mother smiled and reached out as though to touch his face before catching herself.

'I wish I had had your strength when I was your age. I'd probably be better off now.' Her voice was wistful, but proud.

Noki reached out and held on. 

'It's not too late you know. You could leave, move out here. Be part of what I'm building with Lil?'

She shook her head.

'I'm too used to all the frills and fancies. Your father would fight dirty to keep up appearances and I don't have the energy to endure that. I am glad I came though. I'm glad I got to see you like this. I'd like to stay for the ceremony if I can? Meet her?'

'I'd love that', Anoki agreed. 'But I don't want her to know what dad suggested. Not today.'

Afterwards, Lillia couldn't remember getting to the front, her dad kissing her cheek or Eva taking her bouquet. She couldn't remember anything up to Noki squeezing her hand, eyes worried and leaning in to whisper "are you okay?". And she realised she was. So she wasn't the perfect nearly-wife. Nor some imagined heiress picked out from birth to marry the heir of a huge corporation. She didn't have all the answers and she couldn't promise that nothing was going to go wrong for them again.

But she was the person Noki loved and who loved him. They had loved each other through hard times already, without even being together, and if they could do that, they had a shot. She took a deep breath and squeezed his hand back, before saying as much in the presence of friends, family, and whatever universal power liked to toy with them.

It turned out Noki's mother didn't disapprove of her at all. She was a reserved and quiet woman, but she was kind to Lillia and polite to her extended family who were at their noisy, chaotic best. As the sun set over Lucky Palms, the morning's worries seemed far away. Surrounded by love, with a future stretching ahead of her, everything seemed possible. 

Swaying with her dad on the dance floor, she could feel how proud he was of her, and Lillia could finally say she was proud of herself. Not because she was married, but because she hadn't given up. She hadn't broken anything too irreparably to replace. Today was proof of that.  From across the park she could hear Rose screeching with laughter and her mother's low voice asking Tia and Caspar about their plans. She felt like someone who could carry a legacy, someone who had learned things worth passing on and would keep on making better choices and growing as the years passed. 

Read Chapter 17 - Normal People Things