Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Plays and Proposals

Author's Note: This is a very music-centric chapter, so there's quite a few videos of songs linked, but you don't have to listen to them to follow the chapter. I just think it brings it to life a bit and the very last one is a personal favorite. Otherwise, enjoy :)

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-MARIA-

As the final few guests entered the theater, I sucked in a deep breath and made my way inside and down to the front few rows where all of our closest family and friends were seated and flipping through bulletins as they happily chatted amongst themselves. In a row just behind my dad's parents, I spotted Jesse settled in with his father Francesco, his sister, Rebecca, and his wife, Amber, who was whispering something in his ear. Our eyes met for a moment and he gave me a questioning look, but I simply offered back a smile in response and hoped we'd steer clear of each other for the rest of the night so that I didn't have to muster an apology on Tony's behalf. I just wanted to pretend that none of this had happened.

"Oh, here's the bride to be right now."

I turned to see Uncle Donnie's event-planner wife, Diana, happily chatting away with Tony's mom, Katherine. Without a second's hesitation, I already knew that they were in the throes of discussing every little detail of my wedding planning. It was all I'd talked about with either one of them for weeks and it was usually a source of joyous chatter, but at the moment the whole idea of a wedding just put a painful knot in my stomach.

Katherine smiled warmly and patted the seat beside her that had another empty one right next to it—undoubtedly for Tony, "I tried to get you the best seats for picture-taking," she said and once again I mustered a smile.

"Thanks, Katherine, that was really sweet of you."

"Oh, of course, sweetie," she grinned. "I can't wait to see my grandbaby up on stage, the more pictures the better! Diana was just telling me how you shared with her that you thought this would be good practice for Grace being apart of the vows at the wedding. I've never heard about doing children's vows before, but I think it's adorable."

"Well you know that's what Jordan and Lia did at their wedding. They incorporated Maria and Nate into it," Aunt Diana said. "It was Jordan's idea, if I remember correctly, but it's always stuck out to me."

"I already know it'll be the cutest thing. A marriage really is the core of a family and it makes sense to include the children," Katherine smiled and then looked at me. "I say it time and again, as surprising as it may be to some people, I really think being a young dad is what saved Tony. If he didn't have you and Grace, I don't know what he'd do. You keep him centered and give him the stability that Antonio and I never could. You two have the sweetest love story."

I desperately wanted a great love story. Tony was the only man I'd ever been with and that's how a large part of me wanted things to stay. Nevertheless, the other part of me knew that Prince Charming never made Cinderella feel twelve inches tall and that's exactly how I currently felt as I replayed everything Tony had said over and over and over again in my head. With every repetition, my heart broke just a little more and I was on the verge of losing it.

Katherine grinned and gave my hand a gentle squeeze, "Where is my son anyway? Is he backstage with Grace?"

It took me a moment to force my voice box to work as I sucked in sharply, "He isn't coming."

"What?" She asked, surprised. "Why?"

I felt tears rise to the surface and burn the rim of my eyes and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"He showed up here and started a fight with me in the parking lot," I said quietly and looked down at my empty ring finger that seemed so naked without the diamond it'd held for the past four years. "There was a whole thing with Antonio last night and Tony's decided to take it out on me. I've tried to reason with him and ask him not to say certain things, but he just won't stop and he says he doesn't care how it makes me feel. The old 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me' spiel."