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“So, you drugged my father.” Maggie giggled and shook her head. “Very resourceful.” Then she grew serious. “What happens now…with us?” She stared down at my hand and reached out to lace her fingers throughmine.
“That’s entirely up to you,” I murmured. I leaned in to kiss her cheek, but then I saw her cut and swollen skin and couldn’t bear to cause her further pain, so I smoothed her hair backinstead.
“How much of the conversation did you hear?” Maggie squeezed my hand extratight.
“All of it. I have excellent hearing.” I watched her face fall. “None of that matters. Tell me the story,principessa.” I reached out and gently lifted her chin with my freehand.
Her eyes watered. “Ican’t.”
“You have to. It’s the only way you’ll ever be free.” I nodded then planted a kiss on her forehead. “You must know by now, but in case you have any lingering doubt, there’s nothing you can do or say that will ever change the way I feel aboutyou.”
“I find that hard to believe.” Maggiesniffled.
“Try me.” I studied her face. She was unmoved. “Trust me.” She visibly winced. “Let me love you,mitesoro.”
Sucking in a breath, Maggie finally met my gaze. “She was dying. She had been dying for so long.” Her lids lowered and she blew out a ragged breath. “I cared for her while my father was at work, then when he was hiding in his office, and pretty much through all the darkest nights.” Her head tilted and she studied me a moment. “Did you know nights are theworst?”
I shook my head. “No, Ididn’t.”
“They are. They last roughly fifty-seven hours. And the pain meds only lasted about four, if she was lucky.” While she curled up in the seat, she held my hand in between both of hers, and held it against her heart. “I noticed at one point that for roughly ten days, she was in complete agony. I had mentioned it to the doctor by phone. And the doctor said something that struck me: ‘if she’s taking her meds, there’s no way she should be in this muchpain.’”
Suddenly, I guessed where this story was going. In an effort to comfort her, I took her hands, brought them to my lips, and kissed each knuckle individually. At first, she watched me, completely enthralled, but then she inhaled and continued herstory.
“So, when she was asleep one afternoon…because she barely slept at night…I decided to investigate. I checked her bedding. I felt under her mattress. Finally, I opened the little table she used as a nightstand and found my old tooth fairy pillow. No teeth, mind you, but completely stuffed with pain pills.” Maggie glanced out the windshield and tried to inconspicuously wipe away her tears. “See, I knew she was going to do it. There’s no euthanasia policy here, no way to die humanely. She had endured so much suffering. I’d watched it for years while she tried to hang on for us, tried to survive, back when we still had hope.” She shook her head. “By the time she decided to die, hope had been extinguished long ago. I let my mother kill herself. I didn’t stop her when I could’ve, maybe should’ve. It’s why I take care of my father.” Maggie looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. “I took away his wife. I don’t deserve love and happiness.See?”
Before I could say a word and offer her the comfort she deserved, her father piped up from the backseat. “Maggie, I can’t believe you’ve been punishing yourself all theseyears.”
She gasped and whipped around in her seat. Fresh tears spilled down her face and a sob escaped her lips before any words could. “Daddy, I’m sosorry.”
“No, I’m sorry.” Malcolm leaned forward and rested his hand on her shoulder. “Do you think I didn’t know what she was doing? I knew. I buried myself and my shame in work because I was too weak to help end her suffering like she requested.” He sighed. “I’ve buried myself in work ever since.” Malcolm looked at me, his nose turning red from emotion. “Do you think you can love my little girl, give her the life shedeserves?”
I grinned. “I do. And there’s nothing I’d like more in this world than an opportunity to prove it to you, both of you.” Lifting Maggie’s hands, I kissed one, then the other. “What do you say,principessa?”
She tilted her head and studied me a moment. “Did you mean it when you said I can choose where and how welive?”
“Absolutely.” I nodded fervently. My flutter quieted and I suspected when we were finally mated, it would be silencedaltogether.
Maggie smiled shyly. “Well, then I guess we should make itofficial.”
“You mean it?” My eyeswidened.
“As soon as possible.” Shewinked.
I pressed my lips to hers and savored the feeling of our closeness. This woman had the power to completely meltme.
* * *
Maggie
“Ihalf expectedyou to throw me over your shoulder and rush to your bedroom with me when we finally returned,” I teased while we relaxed in the hot tub after a late dinner. The water and jets had helped me unwind some, but I’d never learned how to trulyrelax.
Blaise wrapped his arms around me. “No need for that. We have all the time in the world. This love, this life, you’ll find it’s a marathon in all the very best ofways.”
“So, not the part where I want to die, but where it goes on and on, huh?” Iwinked.
He chuckled. “More like the longevity, but also much more than I can ever explain. Luckily, we get to experience everything together from now on.” His butler walked onto the patio and nodded at us. My brows rose, but Blaise grinned. “Thank you, Fredo.” Then he stood and tugged on my hands until Istood.
“What’s up?” I smiled coyly. Then I decided to get serious. “I think I mentioned I don’t have a lot of experience in this department.” He started to open his mouth to speak, but I stopped him. “Please don’t tell me about the experiences you’ve accumulated through the centuries. I think it would break me. I think I’d be so hurt I might not be able to go through with this.” I bit my cheek while staring up into his glorious sapphireeyes.
