Three Years Too Late for Sorry，Just in Time for My Freedom novel Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Three years had passed since Nicholas drove away from my parents’ driveway.

Three years since I closed the door on that nightmare marriage and sworn I’d never let anyone make me feel small again.

Ta rebuilt my life from scratch. My illustration career was thriving, my art hanging in galleries across Chicago and New York. I’d learned to love the sound of my own voice again, to trust my instincts, to put myself first.

I was finally free.

The gallery opening in Manhattan was everything I’d dreamed of during those years when I was trapped in Nicholas’s kitchen, wearing aprons and pretending

to be someone I wasn’t.

“Gabrielle Monroe?” A deep voice behind me made me turn.

“That’s me.” 1 extended my hand confidently. The old Gabrielle would have blushed and stammered. This version held his gaze steadily.

“Enzo West.” His handshake was firm, respectful. “I’ve been following your work for months. Your work… it’s powerful.”

I raised an eyebrow. Most men at these events pretended to understand art to impress women. But he was talking about specific pieces, technical elements. He’d actually done his homework.

You know illustration?” I asked.

“I know what moves me.” His smile was genuine.

For a moment, I felt exposed.

That’s… perceptive of you, Mr. West.”

We talked for two hours. He asked thoughtful questions and listened to my answers like they mattered.

When he finally asked for my number, I almost said no out of habit.

“Okay.” I said, typing my number into his phone.

Our first date was at a small bistro, he asked about my dreams, my work, my thoughts on everything.

You’re different,” he said over dessert.

‘Different how?”

‘Most people I meet want something from me. You look at me like you’re deciding if I’m worth your time.”

laughed. “That’s because I am.”

six months later, he proposed with a ring he’d designed himself.

‘I don’t want to change you,” he said, dropping to one knee in my art studio. “I want to build a life with exactly who you are.”

said yes because he was the first man who’d ever seen the real me and wanted more of her, not less.

Our wedding was perfect-small, intimate, focused on us rather than impressing his family or business associates. When he promised to love and support my ndependence, I believed him completely.

For two years, I did.

But marriage has a way of revealing who people really are when they’re comfortable. And Enzo, I was learning, had very different ideas about what a wife should be than dating Enzo did.