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“Exactly.” I grinned. “Better to support than deny. Time always has a way of taking care of things, despite your opinions on the matter.”
Margot caught my eyes with a worried smile. The nerves she claimed made her bladder overreact, glowed in her kind stare. “Please, please tell me you did get married, Nerida. Tell me that the ring you keep spinning truly did bind you in the eyes of the law, and you had the ceremony, cake, and happily ever after.”
I wasn’t prepared for the way my heart faltered. Or the way my bruised soul flinched with a typhoon of agonising memories.
I swayed on the steppingstones before rubbing my bleeding heart and forcing a smile. “There are questions I can answer now and questions I cannot. That is one I cannot. Not yet at least. How about we find that bathroom?”
“God.” Margot tipped her head back to the velvet-dark sky and groaned. “I’m going to die. I think I need to go home. Hearing about the rape almost did me in. I don’t think...I don’t think I can listen to any more tragedy.”
Tears pricked my eyes, but I swallowed them down. “But doesn’t tragedy make true love all the sweeter?”
“As long as there’s a happily ever after, sure.” Margot stepped into me, clutching my hand with her slightly clammy one. “But not if you’re going to break my heart.”
I squeezed her fingers, shooting Dylan a look. “If it gives you peace of mind, there are still two years to discuss before I break you,” I said. “Before I was broken. You don’t have to be in pain...just yet.”
“Oh God, two years?” Margot untangled her hand from mine and placed her delicate wrist to her forehead, swooning dramatically. “I won’t be able to cope. Two more years of falling in love with your husband through your eyes? Two more years of worrying that any day now, Zara will announce her dirty secret and that Wayne character will rip Aslan out of your arms and deport him for murdering Ethan...” She scowled. “By the way, what was his last name? Ethan’s?”
“Don’t tell us,” Dylan muttered, his eyes scanning the gorgeous moon-glowing garden with its fairy lights swaying from the frangipani trees and the turquoise glow of the infinity pool up ahead. “The less information we have on him, the better. Especially as you don’t want us to redact that from the finished interview.”
“Fine.” I nodded, striding back into a walk, dragging the reporters with me. “I do know his last name, but you’re right. It’s probably for the best that we leave that part out.”
“Wise.” Dylan caught my eyes and smiled, falling into step. “Anyway, you were saying...we have two more years before the ‘incident’.”
I winced. “It wasn’t an ‘incident’, Dylan. It was the day my world collapsed.”
“You could just tell us now; put us out of our misery,” Margot whined. “I’m not lying when I say I truly don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
Stopping by the pool house where the changing rooms and luxury bathrooms were, I turned and looked at both journalists. They’d already sacrificed so much for me. They’d come here expecting to spend an hour or two interviewing me before returning to their own lives and forgetting all about me and Aslan. Yet they were still here, twelve hours later, dedicating their time to knowing how our love story ended.
“I’m very grateful to you both. I hope you know that,” I whispered. “I had no intention of revealing all of this when you arrived this morning. I feel rather guilty for taking you down a long and twisting memory lane when you came for the simple version of Lunamare’s creation but...it means a lot to be able to share him with you.”
Margot smiled, her young, pretty skin glowing in the darkness. “And it means a lot that you’re willing to share him with us too. I feel as if I know Aslan. As if he’s mine. I’d prefer to hear about the more kinky exploits than the fade-to-black commentary you’ve been doing, but...I’m head over heels for a man I’ve never met.” Her eyes narrowed, peering into the darkness surrounding us as if searching for something, someone. “Are you sure we can’t meet him? It would be so great to get his side of the story. To learn more about his culture and how he found being thrust into an Australian way of life.”
Dylan stood quietly, his shrewd gaze never leaving my face.
And I think...some part of him knew.
Some part of him guessed why I kept avoiding that question.
Swallowing hard, he brushed past me and looped his fingers around Margot’s wrist. “Come along, fellow reporter. Let’s pee so we can return to Nerida’s world.”
“But I—”
Margot’s voice cut off as Dylan dragged her into the pool house, leaving me alone in the blossom-perfumed night.
