Evidence of Innocence

Author

Shirlee McCoy

Reads

18.4K

Chapters

Author

Shirlee McCoy

Reads

18.4K

Chapters

😊 Low Spice 🏙️ Contemporary

EPILOGUE

She made her own wedding cake.

What bride who could, wouldn’t?

Kinsley placed the last flower on the top tier and stepped away from the display table. The church meeting hall had been decorated with flowers and candles, light dancing across the tables and spilling out from the inset windows.

Cream and white with hints of royal blue.

Nothing fancy.

She and Marcus hadn’t wanted that.

They had wanted cozy and intimate. But the entire congregation of the church planned to attend the ceremony.

Which was—she glanced at her watch—ten minutes away!

She smoothed the 1950’s dress her grandmother had once worn. After Kinsley’s grandmother had died, Doris had kept it. A family heirloom she’d been hoping would one day be worn again. Today was the day. For that and for so many things.

Marcus had proposed six months after Elizabeth’s arrest. Neither of them had wanted a protracted engagement. They knew what they had was real, that it would weather all the toughest storms. Doris, Winnie and Rosie had been ecstatic when they’d heard the news.

Just days after the proposal, Elizabeth had been tried and convicted of murder, plus two counts of attempted murder. Andrew Wright had done exactly what Marcus had suspected he would do. As soon as he’d heard that Elizabeth was in jail, he’d started to talk. He’d been paid in cash from a secret bank account Elizabeth had set up in Michael’s name. Not something the police had ever bothered to look into, given the account had been opened in the months prior to his death. Even then, Elizabeth had been planning his murder.

Knowing that hurt, but the hurt of the past had begun to pale in comparison to the joy of the present.

“You’re beautiful,” Jay said, stepping into the room. “Michael would be so proud.” His voice broke, and he dashed a tear away. He’d had a long and difficult road to recovery. Eight months after the shooting, he was finally doing well.

“I wish he could be here,” Kinsley replied.

“If God gives glimpses of our loved ones while we’re in Heaven, this will be the day that Michael sees you. I’m sure of it.” He took her arm. “I don’t want to rush you, but Marcus is at the front of the church, looking very handsome. His dog, Fitz, doesn’t seem phased by the hubbub, but Rosie is tossing pedals all over the aisle runner, and Doris is starting to get antsy.”

“So, it’s time?” she asked, her heart leaping with nervous anticipation and joy.

“Yes. Are you ready?”

“I am.” She took his arm, walking into the hall that led to the sanctuary.

Organ music swelled, drifting out into the corridor. Her heart swelled with it.

Kinsley had never expected to find a love like the kind she had with Marcus. Accepting and encouraging, he filled her life with laughter and adventure.

She couldn’t imagine living a day without him.

She couldn’t imagine what her life would have been like if they hadn’t met.

She didn’t want to imagine it.

Doris was waiting near the double doors, her royal-blue dress and bouquet of winter flowers making her look decades younger than she was. She had been cooking for days, prepping food for the in-church reception. She didn’t look tired. She looked exuberant, her eyes sparkling with joy.

Winnie was beside her, her dress clinging to her curves, her hair falling to her shoulders.

She was holding Kinsley’s bouquet, a soft smile on her face. “You are gorgeous,” she said, pressing the bouquet into Kinsley’s hands and grabbing her flowers from a chair nearby.

“My nephew is a very blessed man.”

“I am a very blessed woman.”

“None of us is going to feel blessed if Rosie tears the place apart while we’re out here chatting in the hall,” Doris said, sniffing back tears and smiling. “Your grandparents would be over the moon, if they could see you, Kinsley. Just imagining it...” She shook her head. “I knew I’d get watery, but don’t you dare tell anyone it happened.”

Doris pushed open the door.

The sun was setting. The stained-glass window behind the altar and pulpit glowing with subtle color and radiant light.

Kinsley noticed it, but her eyes were on Marcus, dressed in his tux, watching her as she stepped into the church.

His hazel eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled, stepped forward to meet them, and held out his hand to take hers. She moved toward him, her heart thundering with joy.

Jay gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“I love you. Your dad loved you. Be happy, Kinsley. That is the best revenge.” He stepped away, took a seat next to his wife and children.

Someone was sniffling.

Doris?

Kinsley didn’t look. She was caught in Marcus’s gaze, held captive as the pastor began to talk about marriage, about love, about the sacred covenant of those things.

God’s design.

His way.

And He would be in this. Just as He had been in every part of Kinsley’s life.

When it was time, she said, I do, her voice trembling, her heart soaring.

She did.

She would.

Every day. For always.

And then it was over and they were in each other’s arms, sealing their vows with a kiss that made Rosie groan.

“No one told me there’d be kissing,” she said.

The guests laughed.

Kinsley laughed, too, still looking into Marcus’s eyes, and seeing everything she’d ever longed for there.

“I love you, Kinsley,” he said, leaning down to kiss the laughter from her lips. “Ready to start our lives together?”