The Bachelor star Brad Womack picked Emily Maynard as his final bachelorette and proposed to her during Monday night's fifteenth-season finale of the ABC reality dating show.

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"I love you baby," Brad told Emily.

"You just made me the happiest girl in the world," Emily replied.

"You made me the happiest guy since the first time I met you. I've wanted to tell you I've loved you for so long. I mean this, Em. I want to spend my life with you. I love you," Brad said. "I'm in it forever."

"Promise?" Emily asked.

"Give you my absolute word," Brad insisted.

Brad, a 38-year-old bar owner from Austin, TX, selected Emily, a 24-year-old children's hospital event planner from Charlotte, NC, over Chantal O'Brien, a 28-year-old executive assistant from Seattle, WA, during the finale.

"It doesn't make sense. I feel like what we had was so special and I was sure that Brad was the one. I really felt like Brad and I had that thing. That we were going to be able to be together and my heart just really hurts right now," Chantal lamented after Brad rejected her at the season's final Rose Ceremony.

"I just feel really stupid. How could I have been so convinced that he was the one and he didn't even love me? There's part of me that's scared I'm not going to find love."

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The Bachelor's fifteenth-season finale began with Brad individually introducing Emily and Chantal to his family, who had traveled from Austin, TX, to Cape Town, South Africa, the finale's filming location. Chantal was the first bachelorette to meet the family members -- which consisted of Brad's mother Pamela, his twin brother Chad, his little brother Wes, and his brothers' wives. Emily then followed the next day.

Both visits went very well and featured the women telling Brad's family they were in love with him. The girls had individual conversations with Brad's brothers together and then a private talk with his mother.

Brad's brothers formed a great first impression about Chantal.

"My immediate reaction to Chantal was she is this lively, vibrant person -- incredibly attractive -- immediately she clicked with the family," Wes said.

"My entire family embraced Chantal. She's a sweet, beautiful, wonderful girl, and I could definitely see Brad and Chantal together. I hope we're going to be planning a wedding," Pamela gushed.

Chad then told Brad that Chantal was incredible and he could tell she really loved him.

"Chantal came and met my family and she completely, completely won them over. Chantal's hard not to love, but it goes so far beyond that. My family can actually see me with Chantal," Brad said.

While Brad and his family both seemed taken with Chantal, she was also busting at the seams with happiness.

"I am so in love with Brad. I am. I am ready to change my life for him. I do honestly feel like in my heart of hearts that Brad and I are going to be together," Chantal said.

"Chantal is such an extraordinary woman. She loved my family. My family loved her. No doubt I can see myself proposing to Chantal. If everything works out, I will marry her," Brad explained.

Emily then met Brad's family the following day and she shared her tragic story about her former fiance who died in a plane crash and her subsequent discovery that she was pregnant with his child. After hearing the story, Brad's family got emotional and could not help but connect with the southern sweetheart.

"Once I got to sit down with Emily, I got to say she is an honest to God genuinely nice girl. She's in it for the good of her and her daughter and my brother," Wes said.

However, Brad's brothers also noted he would be gaining an instant family if he chose Emily and asked him if he was prepared for that. Brad replied by acknowledging he would love to be a father figure to Emily's daughter Ricki and admitted Emily made him want to be a better man.

Brad then noted how he felt all warm and fuzzy when in the presence of Ricki, and his brother decided he was ready to be a husband and a potential father.

Emily also won over Brad's mom without hesitation.

"My favorite thing that Emily said to me today was that she said he was her angel. Her angel, and I think she's had a very difficult time, so I want this to be very good for her," Pamela said in tears.

"Emily fell in love with my family just like they fell in love with her. I'm one happy dude," Brad said.

When Brad sat down with his family to discuss both bachelorettes after they each spent a long day together, Brad was reminded Chantal would be fun and have plenty of time to travel and do things as a couple, while he would have a full-blown set of family responsibilities with Emily.

"It's just too totally different lives. Chantal, I think she's a great person, but I feel like Emily really knew our world," Chad's wife said.

"I like that she's a mom and if she's the one, we're going to get to know her faster because she's in our level and she's in our world," Wes' wife added.

The wives agreed they would have a great fun time with Chantal, but that Emily could relate to them more and fit in so naturally with the family as a whole. Meanwhile, Chad admitted Emily was poised, not shy, and the girls believed she was so sweet and kind.

"She's beyond great," Chad confirmed.

Brad saw that his family tended to lean more towards Emily than Chantal, as Emily had the whole package. Pamela also said she felt as if she was looking at the girl Brad was going to marry when talking with Emily.

The next day, Brad went on his final date with Chantal. After spending the afternoon on a boat and swimming with sharks -- which was Chantal's greatest fear -- the couple enjoyed a quiet evening in a private hotel room where Chantal became even more emotionally invested.

Chantal wrote him a long letter, expressing her innermost feelings and desires in terms of wanting to be with Brad forever and marry him. Brad truly appreciated how easily she could open up to him, and Chantal was terrified it would all come crashing down on her if he didn't pick her in the end.

The following day, Brad and Emily took a helicopter ride and then shared a picnic at Cape Point. Emily spoke about how the next day could be the best day of her life or the most horrible day as she would be learning of Brad's decision.

But their date grew awkward extremely quickly when they went back to a hotel room and began to dive into a very deep conversation.

Brad told Emily he was ready to be a father to Ricki and would do everything in his power to be a good dad to her, however Emily then questioned his motives and wanted to know what he thought a father role would entail. Brad was caught off guard by Emily's reaction and questioning and left the date completely overwhelmed and confused.

"There are two things -- two things that I could have said to Emily -- One is I love you, and one is I want to be the best father I can be. I said one of the two and I was shot out of the water. I was slapped in the face. I was in such a good place and then to be knocked down makes me profoundly hurt and upset. I'm walking away from tonight's date with Emily and I'm defeated. I'm completely defeated. This particular date is making me question everything," Brad confessed.

The next day, Brad prepared for the The Bachelor's fifteenth season's final Rose Ceremony and was thrilled because he knew he had fallen deeply in love and was choosing the woman who was right for him and his life.

Chantal was the first bachelorette to step out of the limo and Brad was awaiting her with some heartbreaking news.

"I'm nervous," Chantal said.

"Where do I begin? I want to say this. The very first time I laid eyes on you, I felt a connection. The very first time, and that connection has only grown overtime. You're what I've always looked for. Always. The fact that I can just simply be myself -- that you allow me to be myself -- is another thing I've always looked for, and it's something I've always tried to force unless it's natural. You made that very natural," Brad told Chantal.

"I think about every single date and how strongly our relationship has grown and I introduced you to my family. They saw everything in you that I originally fell for when I first met you. It's the confidence and you're so self assured. You're someone that I really have looked for for a long, long time, and here's where it gets tough. I don't know how else to say it besides that I have stronger feelings for someone else. I'm so sorry."

"I want you to know something. Every single thing I've said from the beginning, I meant from the bottom of my heart. I want you to know that every single thing we had and will have is real -- very, very real -- I've used every single second that you and I were given. I remember every single word you've said, the letters you've written, and have taken them to heart. I just simply have stronger feelings for someone else," Brad explained. 

"You're an amazing person and Emily's very lucky. It just sucks because I felt so strongly," Chantal told him.

"I think you're an amazing person too," Brad assured her.

After there was nothing left to be said, Brad walked Chantal to the limo and sent her off with nothing but a final goodbye.

Once Brad painfully let Chantal go, he was excited to confess his love to the woman who he claimed changed his life, Emily.

"You are stunning. It's not the first time you took my breath away... Let me catch my breath. You look beautiful. Oh Emily, where do I begin? I've come so far to get where I'm standing here today and I've made so many mistakes, been through so many ups and downs. Sorry," Brad said as he started to choke up a little.

"I've always believed that when the time was right, I'd find the woman that I was looking for for my entire life. I knew it would take opening up in ways I'm really not used to and I knew it would definitely take convincing myself to take a leap of faith if I found even the slightest bit of love. Sorry."

"All it took, was coming here and finding you. You're so much more to me than a leap of faith. You're the one, Em. You're it. You're my once in a lifetime and so what I'm asking for is this. I'm asking you to please give me your forever. Please let me be your best friend. Please let me protect you and your beautiful daughter, and please give me the opportunity to love you for the rest of your life. I love you, Emily," Brad gushed.

"I love you too," Emily responded sweetly and quietly.

"I am truly in love with you," Brad told her.

"I love you too," Emily verified.

Brad then got down on one knee and presented Emily with a diamond engagement ring.

"So, I'm shaking. Emily, please make me happier than I've ever been in my life and marry me," Brad asked Emily.

"I'd love to," Emily replied.

The couple kissed numerous times and they both could not get rid of their smiles.

"I love you. Let me put this on your finger, please," Brad said. "I hope you like it."

"I Love it. It's perfect," Emily confirmed.

During the After the Final Rose special which followed the finale, Emily and Brad told The Bachelor host Chris Harrison they have remained engaged since the finale was filmed, but their relationship has not played out like a fairytale and the couple has had a bumpy road since the final Rose Ceremony was filmed in November.

Brad explained that Emily had already briefly broken up with him once, and while Emily suggested she loved Brad with every part of who she was, she confessed she was not ready to get married or move to Austin just yet.

However, Brad reiterated she was the woman for him, he would never stop loving her, and he planned to marry her the moment she was ready.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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