CHAPTER 24 - FULL CIRCLE

Months later, they returned to Ireland.

Not for business. Not for a gala or speech. But for something far more sacred.

James and Candice Vauhn's 40th wedding anniversary was being celebrated in their estate's lush garden, with close friends, old colleagues, and three generations of Vaughns in attendance.

As the string quartet played softly, and servers passed around champagne flutes, Melissa stood quietly by the fountain with Aria.

"She reminds me of you at that age," Candice said, coming up beside them.

Melissa glanced sideways. "I was a bit more chaotic, don't you think?"

Candice smiled knowingly. "Yes. But you had that same fire. You just needed someone who could carry water."

Melissa laughed softly. "David didn't just carry it. He poured it into every crack."

Her mother nodded, her eyes misty. "Your father and I never imagined the girl who used to vanish for days would become this... this force. You've changed our name. You've given it meaning beyond wealth."

Melissa looked out over the guests and saw David laughing with James, both men nursing glasses of Irish whiskey. Her heart swelled.

"You accepted him even when it wasn't easy," she said. "You opened the gates."

"We didn't," Candice corrected. "He broke them. With grace."

As twilight fell, James took the microphone.

"Before we toast to four decades of love," he said, "I'd like to raise a glass to the couple that reminds us what transformation looks like."

He looked at David and Melissa.

"Melissa Vauhn-Terverem and her remarkable husband, David Terverem. You've given us a second legacy. One born not of inheritance, but of character."

The guests clapped.

Melissa leaned toward David and whispered, "Do you think we'll make it to forty years?"

He smirked. "Forty and beyond."

"And if I lose my way?"

"I'll find you."

As the night lit up with laughter, fireflies, and soft Irish music, Melissa realized the circle had closed.

From reckless beginnings to rooted grace.

From wild girl to world-changer.

From a chance meeting to a forever love.

And beneath these brilliant skies, she knew the story had only just begun.

The plane touched down on the soft tarmac of Makurdi Airport in central Nigeria, its wheels kissing the earth gently.

It had been five years since Melissa last set foot on African soil. She remembered the heat, but this time it felt different—not stifling, but warm, welcoming. Like a memory that had grown kinder over time.

David was bringing her home—not to Geneva, not to Dublin, but to the red clay roads and mango-sweet air of Tivland, the place that had shaped him.

Aria, now six and precociously curious, pressed her nose to the window. "Daddy, is this where the moon sings?"

He chuckled. "Something like that."

The entire Terverem family was waiting—cousins, uncles, aunties, elders. They had set up a celebration under the tall mango trees: music, jollof rice, traditional dancers in feathered headdresses.

Melissa wore a deep black & white angḕr dress tailored for the occasion, her hair wrapped in a matching head tie. David wore a white agbada, richly embroidered with silver patterns.

When his mother, Mama Nenge, saw Melissa, she pulled her into a fierce, tearful embrace.

"You are the daughter I never bore, but the one I prayed for."

It was a reunion and a reckoning. The woman once so lost had become a matriarch in her own right—honoured, admired, seen.

Over the following days, they travelled deeper into the villages. Melissa helped deliver supplies to a new health centre, a project funded by the Vauhn-Terverem Foundation. David lectured at a rural school where boys and girls listened as if he were magic.

One evening, as the sun melted into the earth, they stood atop a hill overlooking the Benue River.

"Do you remember when we first met?" she asked, fingers laced in his.

He smiled. "In front of the university library. You were late. And drunk."

"I was lost," she whispered.

"And now?"

"I'm found. Because you stopped me from disappearing."

He turned toward her, his voice low. "You didn't just find yourself. You fought for her. Every day. You became her."

They kissed beneath an African sunset, in a place that knew their story by heart.