“Can I ask you something?”
“Do you promise to leave right after?”
She looked at him flatly. “Are you happy, Marcus?”
He blinked, caught by surprise at the question. “Happy? What does that have to do with anything?”
“I will take that as a no.” She sighed deeply, stood from her chair, and looked upon him with pity. “You are not our father, Marcus, and she is not our mother. You can have so much more than they ever did, if you will only try.”
“I do not want –”
“And Lucy…” She shook her head with sadness. “Yes, your wife. She is strong. She will do as you ask her, I have no doubt. But how will it be in six months from now… one year… ten? What will you tell yourself when you are old and grey and alone, asking why you are, when you had a chance at real happiness, right there for the taking. So close that if you were brave enough, you could take it.”
“You are being awfully dramatic, Sister.”
“I am being real,” she said, her expression still pain-filled and wrought with worry. “Maybe you’re right, and the arrangement you have is for the best? But what if you are wrong? What if…” She dared to smile. “What if this marriage could be so much more, but you were too scared to give it a chance? Have you thought about that?”
Marcus did not know what to say.
He wanted to believe that this marriage was perfect the way that it was, that it could work because it had so far. And he certainly did not want to consider that he should be trying for that which he never wanted in the first place… love and happiness.
Am I wrong to be so stubborn? Does Lucy deserve more… do I deserve more?
“I will not push you.” Honoria turned and started toward the door. “All I ask is that you consider the possibility that your wife is not a business partner, and that you are not our parents.” She reached the doorway and turned around, fixing him with a final look of sorrow. “You do not have to fall in love. You do not have to live happily ever after. All you must do is try. Who knows what will happen if you do.” She smiled a final time, bowed her head, and left Marcus alone.
He was alone too, and never had it felt as it did right then. Married, somehow still alone, and it would stay that way unless he changed it. If he dared to try…
