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Minerva looked radiant and beautiful in a green dress that skimmed over the baby bump she was currently sporting. She and Dante had taken to parenthood with zeal. They had been instant parents, given that it was a vulnerable baby that had brought the two of them together. They had adopted her shortly after they’d married, and then had their second child quickly after.
This third one had only waited a year.
“You look beautiful,” Minerva said, smiling broadly.
“So do you,” Violet said.
Falling in love with Dante looked good on her younger sister. Violet would have never matched her sister with her brother’s brooding friend. She would have thought that somebody with such an intense personality would crush her sister’s more sunny nature. But that wasn’t true at all. If anything, Minerva was even sunnier, and Dante had lost some of the darkness that had always hung over him.
He had maintained his intensity; that was for sure.
Of course, when he held their children protectively, when he looked at Minerva like he would kill an entire army to protect her, Violet could certainly see the appeal.
Really, what could she say? She had fallen in love with a beast of a man who was as unknowable as he was feral. She could no longer say that the appeal of an intense partner was lost on her.
“You really are happy to marry him?” Minerva asked gently.
“Yes. It’s complicated, but I think you understand how that can be.”
Minerva laughed. “Definitely.”
“How did you manage it? Loving him, knowing he might never love you back?”
The corners of Minerva’s mouth tipped down. “Well. Mostly I managed it by asking myself if I would be any happier without him. The answer was no. I really wouldn’t have been any happier without him. And the time I did spend without Dante was so... It was so difficult. I loved him s
o much, and I had to wait for him to realize that what he felt for me was love. He couldn’t recognize it right away because... He didn’t know what it felt like. More than that, he was terrified of it. And after everything he had been through, I could hardly blame him.”
“Javier is like that,” Violet said softly. “He’s so fierce. A warrior at heart. And he believes that he isn’t good. But that he has honor, and that’s enough. He doesn’t seem to realize that the reason honor matters to him is that he is good. And I think he’s afraid to feel anything for me.”
“Have you said that to him?”
Violet shook her head. “No. I don’t want him to... I don’t want him to reject me.” It was one thing to be uncertain. In uncertainty, hope still blossomed inside her, fragile and small though it was.
But if she did say the words... If he rejected her definitively... Well, then she would not even have hope left.
“I understand that. But you know, it might be something he needs to hear. Because until he hears it, he’s not going to know. Because he won’t recognize it.”
“I’m thankful for you,” Violet said, wrapping her arm around her sister’s shoulder. “I don’t know very many other people who would understand this.”
“My love was definitely a hard one,” she said. “But I don’t think it was wrong to fight for it. I feel like sometimes people think... If it doesn’t just come together it isn’t worth it. But the kind of love I have with Dante... There’s nothing else like it. There’s no one else for me. He was wounded. He needed time to heal. And it was worth it.”
Minerva put her hand on her rounded stomach and smiled. “It was so worth it.”
Violet smiled, determination filling her. This would be worth it too.
The love that she felt for him was so intense, it had to be.
It had to be enough.
* * *
Javier waited at the head of the aisle. The church was filled with people. Some who were from Violet’s world, and many from his. Though he realized he didn’t actually know any of the people in attendance.
He was disconnected from this. From the social part of his job. A figurehead.
It had been interesting going out into town with her. She drew people to them like a bright, warm flame drawing in moths. He had never experienced such a thing, because he was the sort of man who typically kept people at a distance simply by standing there.
But not Violet.
