"I was a prostitute," he admitted, making no effort to soften that. "I had sex with men for money. I also wasn't much older than you, and it was the only way I could get food, because my parents didn't want to let a gay kid live with them."
"And you?" Faith asked Violet.
"I lived here," she explained. "I wasn't a student, Faith. My only crime was that my mother's mind didn't work well enough to let her love me, so she let my grandmother raise me instead."
"And Dad had me," Faith said. "That means Southwind can fix everything, right? You can fix this with Zeke?"
"We can," I promised her. "So long as Emily trusts us, we will make sure that this turns out ok."
"So what do I need to do?" Dan asked.
"You're doing it," Violet assured him. "And no, I'm not sorry Paul Simmons is dead. That bastard deserved it."
"Ok," Dan breathed. "I just feel like I'm failing this boy. He should be seen as a hero, not a criminal."
"He should be seen as Midnight," I corrected. "That means he can be both. Sometimes, Dan, things are complicated and messy. That doesn't make them bad. It just makes them complicated and messy."
Dan eventually left. Violet asked me if she could try to talk Emily into this before I laid too much on her shoulders. I had no problem with that, so she headed down the hill to the cottage. Cy said that he'd go with her, and hopefully, he might be able to offer her some comfort, even if he couldn't "officially" treat her.
As they headed out the door, I saw Cy reach over for Violet's hand. That one simple gesture somehow made all of this feel a little better. A smile touched my lips, and an idea popped into my head. Seizing the moment, I lifted a finger just as Faith shifted to get up. The girl gave me a funny look, but sank back onto the couch.
"What?" she asked.
"Now that they're gone," I said, "I need to ask you a question. Well, we do." And I gestured to Luke to make it clear who I meant.
"Ok..." Faith sounded suspicious.
But Luke understood exactly what I was talking about. "Faith, did you know that it's only legal to marry one person? Husband and wife. Wife and wife. Husband and husband. There's no such thing as husband, other husband, third husband, and the wife."
Faith actually laughed at that. "Yeah, I know, Dad."
"Well," he said, looking up at me like he was trying to get up his nerve. "I want to ask Violet to marry me. That would officially make her your stepmom. Are you ok with that?"
"Uh, yeah!" Then she scoffed as if it was a stupid question.
"And I'm going to ask Cy to marry me," I told her. "Luke and I want to do it at the same time - both the proposal and the wedding."
I had hoped that would make the girl smile, but instead Faith's forehead creased. "So you don't want to marry my dad?"
"I do," I assured her. "I really do, but that's not how the law works, Faith. Cy has said before that he wants to change his last name to Dawson when he gets married. I thought we both could do that. Then all three of us would be Dawsons, so while it's not the same as a wedding, it makes it pretty clear that we're all tied together in our own way."
Faith's head snapped around to look at her father. "So we're changing our name too?"
"No, honey," he tried to explain. "I'd need your mother's permission to change your last name, so I'm keeping mine the same as yours. That way you'll always know who means the most to me."
"But you should have the same name as Violet," she insisted. "Dad, if Ash can change his, why can't you change yours?"
"So I'll match you," Luke tried to explain again.
"No," Faith decided, making it sound like she was putting her foot down. "I think all of you should be Dawson. I mean, that's not even Violet's real last name, right?"
"It was Vera's," I explained. "Vera's daughter was a Higgs, so Violet was born as Violet Higgs. She changed it when she turned eighteen as a way to claim her grandmother a little more."
"So I'll change mine then," Faith said. "I dunno, or maybe Cessily can fix it? She fixes everything. Even if she can't, you should be Luke Dawson, Dad. Then you'd be married to Ash and Cy too, in your own way."
"It's not like you want to carry on your family name, is it?" I asked.
"Shit, no," Luke admitted. "My parents stopped talking to me because of Faith. The way I see it, if they can't accept my decision about her, then they aren't good enough to be a part of anything."
