He had been willing to break himself in half. And then, he hadn’t been.
But if he understood that it came from a place of fear… Because her feelings were so strong, not because they weren’t strong enough.
She gripped her bouquet of flowers tightly, and held on to her brother’s arm.
“You love him.”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t think he loves you.”
“Not anymore. I feel like everything inside him retreated. And why wouldn’t it? You don’t know everything about him. His father was a horrible crime lord, and his whole life with him was difficult. It’s made love such a complicated thing for him.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. I think he does love you. I also think you are right. And it’s a difficult thing for him. I think that he hasn’t given you the words either.”
“He gave me the gesture.”
“Trust me, the man is much more likely to jump off a cliff into the sea than admit his feelings. Don’t let him off the hook that easily.”
With that, the music changed, and it was their cue to go down the aisle. Andrei was there, standing, his dark eyes glistening with something she couldn’t quite discern.
Emotion, maybe. If it were somebody else. But it was Andrei.
And so it was impossible to say.
Did he feel the same way about her?
Would she be able to get it back? If she risked everything. If she tore herself open and bared her heart to him.
She’d already tried. She tried to do it softly. With sweet sex, and he had pushed her away.
So she had to give him the words. She had to.
“And who gives this woman to this man?”
“I do not give her,” Onyx said to the priest. “I stand with her, because she is my sister, and I love her. But the choice she makes today is hers. She does not belong to me, nor will she belong to her husband. Princess Emerald will always belong to herself. She stands alone. The most selfless. And I only hope that Andrei understands what he has in her.”
Her brother’s words were wholly unexpected. They shocked her and brought tears to her eyes.
“Onyx,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
She pulled away from him and looked at the front row, where her sister-in-law sat, looking at herself in her front-facing camera.
She wasn’t even paying attention to the wedding. Or to the beautiful gesture that her husband had just made.
Circe did not see Onyx. Not for who he really was. Or in any way whatsoever.
She just wanted the crown.
She was a good queen, Emerald could grant her that. She was well loved by the people, and went out of her way to treat everyone with kindness. Except her husband.
But she couldn’t fix Onyx’s wedding. She also would never be able to forget what he’d said about isolation and loneliness in a marriage.
All she wanted was for her brother to have love.
Worry about yourself.
She found herself being captured by Andrei, his hands large and firm around hers as they stood there in front of the priests. Her whole body was on fire from his touch. Even just last night, he had her. And yet, it would never be enough. But the sex was only a physical expression of the emotion that was already there. It always had been.
