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The season 18 finale of “The Bachelorette” was a doozy.
On Tuesday’s highly-anticipated finale, Michelle Young gave her final rose, making the difficult decision between her final two suitors: Nayte Olukoya and Brandon Jones.
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SPOILERS BELOW
Michelle took both Nayte and Brandon to meet her parents during the three-hour finale, with Brandon making the biggest impression on her family.
Afterward, Michelle told Brandon that she was “already in love with him.”
During her date with Nayte, the Bachelorette raised concerns about whether he would be ready to propose to her if she picked him, and he assured her that he is constantly imagining his future with her.
Returning to her hotel room after the date, Michelle found a letter left for her from Brandon.
“Michelle, ever since you’ve entered my life, I don’t view the world the same anymore. I realized that a world without you is a world I fear to face,” he wrote. “You have truly infected me with the love I don’t believe is remotely easy or common ever find in a lifetime. A love so beautiful and deep that it leads me to a pure understanding that what I have with you is a love of wanting more for someone than for themselves. The kind of love where I will always place your happiness above mine. Follow your heart, Michelle, and never look back because I followed mine and it led me to. Just know Michelle, you will never need to ask for my love because I will love you forever. I see you, I have always seen you and I will always see you.”
In a confessional, Michelle admitted, “I have two men and I’m in love with them both. They have given me everything that I’ve asked for and tomorrow is going to be the hardest decision I’ve ever made.”
When it came time to choose, both men picked out engagement rings, but unfortunately for Brandon, he was sent home.
“It’s not that I don’t love you, because I do,” Michelle told him. “It’s just that my heart is pushing me in a different direction and I have to go with what I feel and it hurts so much because you are this unbelievable person. … You truly will always have a piece of my heart, Brandon.”
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After they embraced, Brandon walked away and moments later Nayte arrived to be given the final rose.
“Michelle, the very first night I met you, I knew right then and there that we had a connection that I wanted to hold on to. The second night that we were together, we talked about running away together,” Nayte told her. “I’m standing in front of you right now and the feelings are the same. I want to run away with you. I want to run away to forever with a woman that I’ve come to love this amazingly, crazy, wow kind of love. And through this journey, you’ve shared a lot of vulnerable sides of your past and I know that you’ve felt unseen at times and I want to let you know that I am completely prepared, willing and ready to make sure that you are always chosen first, seen now, today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. I love you, Michelle.”
Michelle told him, “This has not necessarily been a smooth ride, but I’m also not willing to face that fear of walking away from this without you. Because I have never felt a love like this before. And I love you with my entire heart and don’t ever want to think about waking up next to anyone besides you and doing life with anyone besides you.”
She added, “And at the end, I wanted to be standing in front of my soulmate and he is definitely standing right in front of me.”
Finally, Nayte got down on one knee to propose, and Michelle joyfully accepted.
