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me, Ares knows he has to marry someone of our grandma’s choosing…but the one she initially chose for him wasn’t Hannah. It was you.”
That all changed when I took Hannah with me to Sierra’s twenty-first birthday party. I saw him first, but she’s the one he never looked away from.
“I just haven’t found a guy that can keep me captivated. I’m not willing to settle for anything short of complete devotion. I want epic love, and I’m willing to wait for it.”
He didn’t earn her smile. I did.
“The only things I’ve ever regretted were the things I didn’t do.”
“No,” I lie to her. “The friction from you moving on top of me made me hard, yeah, but I don’t want you, Raven. I’ll never want you. I’m not sure what you’re thinking, but you need to stop. Do you know how much your actions tonight would hurt your sister? Fuck, it’s hurting me.”
“In vino veritas,” he tells me. In wine lies the truth. Yeah,
“If I was always meant to marry him, she should’ve stayed away from him. You can’t expect me to marry my sister’s ex, Dad. You can’t do this to me. Do you understand how messed up this is? You can’t condemn me to a marriage with someone who is in love with my sister.”
“So long as it’s within my power, there’s nothing I won’t give you, Raven. No matter what you ask, it’s yours—and that includes me.”
She’s like the moon, Raven. Beautiful on a lonely night but cold and distant. You? You’re the sun. You’re warmth and happiness, and the center of all that’s good.
“This is it,” I whisper. “From this moment forward, you’re my wife. Mine to care for, mine to cherish, and mine to protect. I know this isn’t what you wanted for yourself, but I swear I’ll give you my all, Raven.”
Why can’t I ever be anyone’s priority? What makes me so undeserving of that? Why can I never measure up against Hannah in my parents’ eyes? In Ares’s eyes? What is it that she’s got and I’ll never have? Why is my best never enough?
“Let me show you what it means to be my wife, Raven.”
“You’re my every dream come true, Raven.”
“When are you going to realize that I’m yours? Willingly. Irrevocably.”
“You have no idea what an honor it is to call you my wife, do you?”
I thought it meant compromise, selflessness, and patience. Now I know better. True love is maddening, all-consuming, and it’s fucking selfish, Rave. It’s impatience and counting down the minutes until you get home.
“Let’s normalize walking away from toxic situations. You don’t have to stick it out when your mental health is taking a beating, just because that’s what everyone expects of you. It’s okay to reassess and decide whether or not a situation is still acceptable to you.
