Epilogue
Three months later
Avira
All the girls in the room look at me with parted mouths.
“You are looking so drop-dead gorgeous, goddamn it,” Autumn says slowly.
Wen and Lyn nod like robots.
I grin. “I told you.”
I’m wearing Fire on Ice. It appeared magically in my room this morning. I confronted the magician who made it happen and learned exactly what he did.
He had ordered this dress the very same day he tore the one I had tried on. He had kept this dress with him all this time. The designer only makes one dress per customer, and because Zoan had already bought this dress, I didn’t find it and had to compromise with another dress.
And today, he surprised me with this. It’s a relief my size hasn’t changed, or I would have died in regret on the day of my wedding.
My makeup artist arrives, so I sit on the stool to get my makeup and hair done. By the time it’s all finished, everyone has come to see me.
My mom is not at all teary, unlike Aunt Hope, who was crying so much. Well, her daughter has come to another country. My mother is grinning and laughing as her daughter moves from one room to another.
Everyone comes and goes, leaving only my girls in the room.
The door opens after a soft knock, and Daddy enters.
I get up from the stool and reach him. He isn’t looking sad at all, unlike Uncle Damir.
I lock my arm around his elbow.
“Why do you call me pumpkin, Daddy?” I’ve asked him this thousands of times, and he always gives the same reply.
“Because you are my little pumpkin.”
I chuckle at the familiar answer.
But then he continues, “The first time I held you, you were so small, just like the pumpkins I used to pick for my mother from our garden. So I named you pumpkin.”
I look up at his face. “And why did you never tell me this before?”
He shrugs. “I saved it for your wedding day.”
I laugh.
“To make you laugh like this, so you can have good photos.”
I laugh even more as we step outside. The front garden is transformed into a dreamy wedding venue. The wedding and reception are set in this garden.
We enter through the flower gate, at the end of the aisle stands Zoan. My jaw almost drops when I see him wearing a champagne-colored suit. He looks absolutely stunning, and the way he’s looking at me, I’m melting in my Fire on Ice dress.
Daddy gives my hand to him. Zoan holds it firmly, his eyes never leaving mine.
We exchange our vows under a floral archway. When we kiss, it’s gentle and tender.
After the ceremony, we walk to the reception area. We cut the cake. Then the party begins, a whirlwind of dancing, laughter, and joy that leaves me exhausted. By the time everything winds down, I’m on the verge of collapsing.
Tomorrow we leave for our honeymoon, and I’m more than happy with that decision. Today, in no shape or form, could I travel.
I look at the man walking beside me. I don’t know whether he has really dealt with the people who talked badly when the news of our wedding came out, but I don’t find anyone talking shit today.
When the news of our wedding came out, a lot of people started saying nasty things.
Somehow, it leaked on the internet that the woman Zloban Bennett was going to marry was the daughter of Alexander Bennett, and then everywhere, people began spinning theories that could make anyone cry, and by anyone, I mean me.
Although the people who talked nonsense in their videos and articles soon vanished from the internet, but for an entire week, whenever I searched his name or mine, a new piece of bullshit appeared right in front of me.
I still remember those lines that made me cry for hours.
“Playbook move: groom the family, marry the daughter, inherit everything. What a slimeball.”
“She slept with the man she called brother.”
“She’s a selfish whore who ruined everyone’s life for a thrill.”
“She could’ve chosen any man, but she picked the creepiest option.”
“A calculated piece of human garbage who waited his whole life to claim what wasn’t his.”
“Her face should be worn as a mask of shame in that house forever.”
“What a perfect little scam, charm them, marry them, bankrupt their reputation.”
“They raised a monster and sold their daughter to him.”
If not for my family, I wouldn’t have survived that period.
My parents never said a single harsh word to me or to Zoan, even when the whole world was throwing filth at them, and that only made my guilt heavier.
They kept telling me not to feel that way, but who can really control their emotions once they start spiraling?
Wen and Lyn were there with me physically, helping me resist the urge to check the internet, but even then, I somehow kept stumbling across that crap.
Zoan and Daddy were furious, but they couldn’t stop people too abruptly, it would have only drawn more attention.
After about a week, everything finally died down.
It looked natural, as if people had simply gotten bored and moved on from the gossip.
Now, all traces of that information have been completely wiped from the internet.
And that’s the story of the online world, at least the one I’m aware of. What people in the underworld said about it, I have no idea. But I’m sure of one thing: they weren’t silent.
I sigh. It was a bad time, Avira, but it’s gone now. You’re married to the man you love. The happiness of the present moment blooms inside me again, chasing away the gloominess of the past.
We walk inside the mansion and then to his room.
I fall onto the bed. “I won’t marry again in this life.”
And the next moment, he is on top of me. “You can’t marry again in this life.”
Then he is kissing me. I close my eyes, responding to him. Slowly, my responses become sluggish as sleep starts taking over me.
He pulls back. “No one sleeps on their wedding night, Dove.”
I force my eyes open. “It’s fake news, Zoan.”
He gets up from me. “Okay, remove your dress, take a bath, and then sleep.”
I roll onto my stomach. “Remove my dress, that’s a husband’s job.”
“The duties don’t end at removing the dress, wife.”
I speak in a drowsy whisper, “Yes… you’ll have to remove my makeup also.”
He laughs then starts removing my dress. The dress is so light and comfortable, but the heat outside is enough to make me feel suffocated.
He takes the dress to the closet, Zoan and his OCD. I smile and close my eyes. Tiredness instantly pulls me under sleep.
But my sweet sleep only lasts a few minutes because then my panties are being removed. I’m turned onto my back, my legs spread, and a hot tongue makes me moan.
Zloban
“You are well aware that you are a beast, right?” she mumbles, resting her cheek on my shoulder.
I chuckle, removing another pin from her hair.
“Who uses his tired wife like this? Only a beast could do that,” she keeps muttering.
“Where were these complaints when this tired wife was riding my dick?”
Finally, all the pins are out. I open her hair, and they cascade down her naked back. I lift her up again and move us to the bathtub.
“If I’m being used,” she murmurs against my ear, “why wouldn’t I take something in return?”
I start washing her hair. She hums softly, closing her eyes, leaning into my hand as my fingers massage her scalp.
“Zoan.”
“Hmm.”
“We’re married.”
“Yes, Dove. We’re married.”
She grins. “Do you know since how long I’ve been dreaming about marrying you?”
“No,” I smile.
“I also don’t know,” she chuckles. “It feels like forever.”
I kiss her lips and place the showerhead back in its holder.
“Will you always love me like this?” she asks, resting her head on my shoulder.
I hum and press a kiss to her wet hair.
“Would you have loved me if I were ugly?”
I laugh. “Maybe.”
She looks up at me with half-open eyes, glaring adorably. “You don’t love me. You only love my body.”
I kiss her lips again, slower this time. “If your eyes had been of different colors, if your nose was this long, if your skin had ten different shades, even if you looked like a real demon, I’d still love you the same. Because no matter how you look, you’re my Dove. My life.”
“And what if you had never met me in childhood?” she asks quietly. “Your life would’ve been good. Would you have still fallen for me when we met later?”
“From where are all these pointless questions coming?” I knock lightly on her head.
She catches my hand and pulls it back. “Answer me.”
“I would’ve fallen for you the moment I laid my eyes on you. My heart would’ve beaten the same way it did sixteen years ago, when I didn’t even know a heart could beat like that, like it had finally found what it was searching for all along.”
I lean closer, my breath brushing her lips. “I would’ve thought a thousand times before touching you, afraid I might taint you.”
I kiss her smiling lips again.
“No matter where I was born or how I lived,” I whisper against her mouth, “I would’ve always found my way to you.”
Some things are destined to happen, and this—you and me—was one of them.