Before the vows, Raúl took Raquel’s hands.
“I cannot promise that I’ll never disappoint you,” he said. “I cannot promise that the future will be easy, or that I will always know the right thing to do.”
Raquel’s eyes shone.
“But I can promise that I will not use your generosity as a substitute for love. I will not ask you to buy my loyalty. And I will not allow other people’s opinions to become the voice that decides what you mean to me.”
He paused.
“When I first met you, I thought my greatest problem was that I had no money. Then I thought my greatest problem was whether people would accept us. Now I understand that the most important thing is whether we can continue to be honest with each other when life becomes difficult.”
Raquel squeezed his hands.
“When I first met you, I thought I could offer you everything you needed and somehow make myself safe from being hurt again,” she said. “I thought that if I had enough money, I could control the circumstances of my life.”
