Chapter 225: v2- - 44: the emperor’s decision III

Adrian had already decided to marry her.

That decision had been made before he ever crossed the ballroom.

He would bind Marian to him first.

Then, whatever doubts remained, he would have the rest of their lives to deal with them.

She would no longer be able to simply walk away.

He had spent too long allowing that possibility to exist.

But now he stood before her, listening to her speak.

And something in him began to change.

Marian had not tried to defend herself.

She had not denied that she had chosen Cassian.

She had not pretended that his absence had nothing to do with why she had returned.

She had simply told him the truth.

She had loved Cassian.

She had chosen Cassian.

And only after he was presumed dead had she returned to the capital.

Adrian already knew all of that.

It wasn’t the information that affected him.

It was the way she said it.

Without hiding.

Without trying to soften the truth.

Without giving him the answer she thought he wanted.

Just Marian.

The woman he had known for most of his life.

The woman who had always been honest with her heart.

Even when that honesty had destroyed him.

His jaw tightened.

He remembered the day she had told him she wanted their engagement dissolved.

She had not lied to him then.

She had loved another man.

She had chosen him.

And Adrian had hated her for it.

He still did, sometimes.

He hated that she had been capable of loving someone else.

Hated that she had looked at him and told him she did not regret her choice.

Hated that after all those years, after everything they had been to each other, another man had become more important to her.

But none of that had ever changed the other truth.

He had loved her.

He still loved her.

That was the contradiction he had lived with for years.

He could resent her.

He could want to punish her.

He could remember every wound she had left behind.

And still want her more than anyone else in the world.

Marian’s voice reached him again.

She wanted him.

She had fallen in love with him again.

And suddenly Adrian could see something he had almost forgotten.

Not the woman who had spent weeks trying to prove herself.

Not the woman who had been frightened of losing him.

The Marian he had loved before all of this.

The Marian who had always followed her heart, even when doing so cost her everything.

Something in his chest loosened.

His anger did not disappear.

But for one moment, it no longer mattered.

He looked at her.

Her eyes were wet.

She was waiting for his answer.

Adrian lifted his hand and touched her cheek.

Marian went still.

For one brief moment, there was no calculation.

No test.

No punishment.

No throne between them.

There was only her.

And the love he had never managed to kill.

He kissed her.

There was no strategy behind it.

He didn’t kiss her to make her stay.

He didn’t kiss her to prove anything.

He kissed her because, in that moment, the anger was gone.

Because she was Marian.

Because she had just stood before him and given him the truth.

Because he loved her.

He held her for those few seconds as though nothing had ever happened between them.

And for those few seconds, he forgave her.

Not deliberately.

Not as a decision.

It simply happened.

When he pulled away, he looked into her eyes.

Marian’s breath was unsteady.

Adrian felt the same strange stillness inside himself.

He had wanted to say these words for so long.

Not as a command.

Not as a strategy.

Not as another test.

He simply wanted her.

He wanted her beside him.

He wanted her to be his wife.

And so he said the only thing that mattered.

"Then marry me."

Marian stared at him.

She didn’t answer.

For a moment, Adrian thought she hadn’t understood.

Then he watched the words settle.

He saw it happen in her eyes first.

The disbelief.

Then the hesitation.

Her lips parted slightly.

She looked at him as though she were searching his face for some indication that this was another test.

Another condition.

Another moment in which he would ask her to prove herself.

But Adrian said nothing.

He simply held her gaze.

Marian’s eyes moved over his face.

His eyes.

His mouth.

The hand still resting against her cheek.

She seemed almost afraid to believe what she was seeing.

"You mean it?"

The question came quietly.

Adrian didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

Something in Marian’s expression broke.

Not painfully.

Softly.

The tension that had held her for weeks seemed to leave her all at once.

Her eyes filled.

A tiny, disbelieving smile touched her lips.

Then she looked away, almost as though she needed a moment to contain everything she was feeling.

Adrian watched her.

He watched the way she pressed her lips together.

The way she blinked rapidly.

The way her fingers curled lightly against his chest.

And then she looked back at him.

There was so much happiness in her eyes that it struck him harder than he expected.

"Marry me, Marian."

This time, there was no question in his voice.

No test.

No challenge.

Just the man who loved her asking her to become his wife.

Marian’s smile trembled.

A tear escaped.

She laughed softly through it.

And then she nodded.

"Yes."

The word was barely a whisper.

But Adrian heard it.

His chest loosened.

Marian smiled wider.

It was the brightest smile he had seen from her since she returned.

She looked almost radiant.

As though she had been waiting all this time for permission to be happy.

And Adrian could not look away.

He had wanted her for years.

He had imagined this moment countless times.

But none of those imaginings had prepared him for the sight of Marian looking at him like this.

She was happy.

Because he had chosen her.

Because he had asked her to stay.

Because he had finally given her the certainty she had been afraid to hope for.

For one moment, Adrian allowed himself to feel it too.

The warmth.

The relief.

The strange, almost boyish happiness of having the woman he loved say yes.

His hand slipped from her cheek to the back of her neck, drawing her gently against him.

Marian laughed again, and the sound was soft against his chest.

Adrian closed his eyes.

For this one moment, he did not think about the past.

He did not think about his doubts.

He did not think about what might come afterward.

He simply held her.

--

Tbc