The Wedding Night They Never Had

As they built a web of intimacy together.

“I fell in love with Stella when I was very young. I had no aversion to marrying. My parents had a wonderful marriage. Have a wonderful marriage. Long and healthy. Functional. I always thought...I would find the right woman, and I would marry her. Quickly and easily. For love always seemed quick and easy to me. Why wouldn’t it? After all, my parents lived a fantasy. Why wouldn’t I live the very same fantasy? Love came quickly. It came easily. And it was lost just as quickly and easily. And my life... My life was never what I thought it would be.”

“Sorry,” she said, her heart squeezing tight. It was not language barriers that made words ineffectual, not now. It was the fact there were no words for these things. For the deep sadness and unfairness in the world. She hated this. Hated that he had been through so much pain. Why did it feel like this?

She didn’t think she could recall ever feeling quite so sorry for another person’s tragedy. And at the same time she felt...angry. Angry because part of her wished that she could have been loved half so dearly as this Stella woman had been. But Stella was gone, and Annick lived.

What a very strange thing. Everyone who had ever loved Annick was gone. And this man loved a woman who was not here. It left behind a broken Annick. A broken Maximus. How much more right the world would have been if Annick were gone and Stella were here.

But Annick wanted to be here. Wanted to be in Maximus’s arms, in his bed. Annick wanted to be the one who was here, breathing next to him, touching him.

Yes, that was what she wanted. Even if it meant the world remained broken and out of sorts.

She was sorry, though. That a man so beautiful should be so haunted.

She wondered if anyone felt so sorry for her. If anyone looked at her and thought it sad that someone so young had been robbed of so much life.

She didn’t know that they did. But either way, she cared for him. Cared for his brokenness. Even if no one much minded her own.

Even if he didn’t.

“What happened?”

“My father is not quite the self-made businessman he appears to be. Oh, he is responsible for the way that his life has gone, but he’s done things...”

“What things?”

“He engaged in a host of shady business practices initially. My father is a good man in many ways. You have to understand that. As a boy, Dante was living on the streets, tried to rob my father and kill him. And rather than extracting punishment from him, my father sent Dante to a school where he was educated. Took care of him. Introduced him to me. Gave me a lifelong friend who is truly more like a brother. My father also promised my sister to a King in return for aid to his business. And he made bad bargains with the wrong people. And those people sought their revenge when my father thought he could outrun them. When he thought he could cheat them. My father is a family man. He has never been unfaithful to my mother. He raised us well. But he waded into dark waters to create his fortune. And those things have a way of coming back to haunt you. And they did. They did. There was a man sent to punish my father. Sent to kill his son.”

“Maximus...”

“But the assassin’s bullet did not hit his son.” The word broke, along with his voice.

“It hit Stella. I didn’t protect her. I couldn’t protect her. I didn’t know. I was naive. Ignorant. Innocent in a way. I believed that my father was a good man. I believed that he would never do anything to put his children in harm’s way. But he did. And worst of all, we didn’t know it. Because I didn’t know it, I didn’t know that Stella was ever in danger by being with me. Her murder remains listed as unsolved. Because the man was an international hit man. And she was just... She was just a girl. A young, beautiful girl who had the misfortune to fall in love with the wrong man, who was connected to the wrong people. She deserved more. She deserved better. She sure as hell deserved to live.”

“And all this is for her. All of this,” Annick said. “Even protecting me.”

“I could see her face when you told me about your plight. She would’ve been angry with me for abandoning you. She was a good person.”

“And you loved her.”

“Yes. Of course, then I thought... I thought that love was simple. And that people were exactly who they appeared to be. That love was easy and life was charmed. That my father’s legend was real. None of it was real.”

“You have a family,” she said. “A family who loves you.”

He nodded slowly. “That’s the truth of it. I do. I have a family—you don’t. It must be difficult to have lost your family. Though in some ways I felt that day that I lost mine. At least, my illusion of what it was.”

“Me,” she said, “I would rather have an illusion than nothing. Than a life spent in the dungeon. I’m not saying it is easy, this. This thing that happened to you. This thing that you learned about your father. But I know what it is to be left with no one. No one to care about your pain. Did your father at least care?”

“He was broken by it. I’ve never seen a man weep like he did, not even me. Not even me when she died. But he made me swear that I wouldn’t tell. Not my mother. Not Min or Violet. And not Dante.”

“So they could keep the family they always thought they had.”

“My kindness was not for him. But for them.”

“It makes sense, this. But then, you’re all alone. Maximus King to them. They don’t know you. They don’t know who you are.”

“No. They don’t.”