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“I never truly knew what he had to do for them because it was safer that I didn’t. And Aslan never put us at risk because although the deal he’d made had allowed him to return to Australia, he would never put his family in danger.
“We came first. Above everything.”
“Do you still come first, or...are we speaking past tense again?” Margot winced.
Taking pity on her, I tampered my impatience and gave her what she needed to hear. “Do you want me to say the words that Aslan Kara, my most wonderful husband, is still alive?”
She melted into the couch. “Oh, would you? Please. That would help me sleep tonight. If you don’t, I’ll always imagine him keeling over while you enjoyed your twentieth anniversary in Lunamare.”
Glancing at Dylan, then back to Margot, I sucked in a breath and told her the truth and nothing but the truth. “Aslan is still alive. Forgive my use of dramatics for the article, but I stand by what I said. I never saw Aslan Avci again because he was ruled by shadows and grief. Aslan Kara is light and faith itself, even after everything he’d endured.”
“So...he’s okay?” Her voice was nothing but a whisper.
“He’s still alive.” I nodded, skirting her question. “I’ve been honest, so I’ll continue being honest. When he was forty-three, his heart skipped a little too badly at dinner. Luckily, Teddy and Eddie were there to break all the speed limits and get us to the hospital. Turned out, he had another attack. Only mild, but enough for the doctors to come up with more rules and restrictions.
“Time lulled us into a false sense of security, and we spent almost seven years with only a few palpitations before...” I swallowed hard, struggling to remember that time without great lancing pain. “He had a stroke when he was fifty.”
“Oh no,” Margot exclaimed. “Is he...did he lose—”
“For a time.” I nodded matter-of-factly. “He lost sensation in his left side, which meant walking on his prosthetic was hard. If it’d happened to any other man, losing part of his ability to speak and move might’ve broken him, but...it only made him more determined.”
I didn’t tell them why he was so determined to survive because if I did, they’d know exactly what I had planned after this.
“It took him close to four months to fully regain his strength. By the time he was speaking clearly again, with no signs of what he’d gone through, he’d learned Spanish. The doctors claim his recovery was so swift thanks to his eidetic memory and the many neurons firing in his brain.”
We let them think that.
No one ever knew the vow I’d made to him and the threat that kept him living.
I looked back now on the many incidents when his heart tried to take him from me and each time, I’d dragged him back. Not because he was ready to leave me but because he wasn’t going anywhere without me.
It was his duty to stay.
His soul-bound oath to exist while I did.
You die, I die.
It’d been a promise.
A threat.
A vow.
“You have to understand, Margot, this is our life story. It’s a love story, yes, but most importantly, it is the truth. No one’s life is perfect. No romance lasts forever. As of today, you can honestly finish your article with the words ‘And they lived happily ever after’ because we are still wed, still very much in love, and still very much alive.”
“Why do I sense a but coming?” Dylan asked quietly.
“Because...if you follow any romance for long enough, they all end in tragedy. Every single one. Eventually, someone dies or gets sick or falls out of love. Even the tales about immortal gods and goddesses all end at some point. There is no such thing as immortality because time marches on and everything always changes. The only thing a love story truly has is the promise that if it was true...if that love was the one you were destined to find and you adored that mate with all your wretched soul, then...that part is forever. Those are the tales that last a lifetime because love exceeds all lifetimes.”
“I don’t know if that comforts me or hurts me,” Margot muttered. “I think I prefer the Disney version where you close the book or turn off the movie and believe that their happily ever after lasts an eternity.”
“Love does. Bodies don’t.” I shrugged. “That’s irrefutable. And...in a way...it makes our time on earth all the more precious because it isn’t infinite. It’s far, far too short, and why waste it being unhappy or sad or angry? Why bicker and stress? Why pout and play games? The only point of existence is to love and be loved as wildly and as freely as possible.”
She gave me a smile and a nod. “You’re a wise woman, Nerida.”
