002 - Duty And Desire

DARIUS

I rubbed my temples, trying to push away the headache building behind my eyes. Sera's face kept flashing in my mind—those hurt, angry tears she tried to hide from everyone.

Why did she always have to make things so hard?

I loosened my tie and walked toward the toy room where Luna's laughter echoed down the hall. At least someone was happy today. My daughter's giggles mixed with Vivienne's soft voice, and for a moment, it sounded like music.

"Daddy!" Luna ran to me the second I stepped into the room, her little arms wrapping around my legs. "Look what Vivienne taught me!"

She showed me how to make the music box play different songs by turning tiny keys. Her face glowed with excitement, and my chest tightened. When was the last time Sera had looked at our daughter like this—with pure joy instead of worry and exhaustion?

"That's wonderful, sweetheart." I kissed the top of her head, breathing in that sweet smell of children's shampoo. "Why don't you keep practicing while I talk to Vivienne for a moment?"

"Okay!" Luna bounced back to her toys, already forgotten about us adults and our complicated lives.

Vivienne smiled at me—that same gentle smile that used to make my heart race when we were young. Now it just made my chest feel heavy. She followed me into the small closet room next to the toy area where we kept Luna's extra clothes and shoes.

The space felt too small suddenly. Her perfume filled the air, something light and expensive that reminded me of spring flowers. My hands found my pockets, a habit I'd picked up whenever I felt nervous.

"She's beautiful, Darius." Vivienne's voice was barely above a whisper. "She has your eyes but..."

"But she looks like her mother." I finished the sentence, watching how Vivienne's face changed at the mention of Sera.

Before I could step back, Vivienne closed the distance between us. Her arms went around my neck, her body pressing against mine like it had a thousand times before. Her lips aimed for mine, desperate and hungry.

"I've missed you," she breathed against my ear, her voice breaking. "Five years, Darius. Five years of thinking about you every single day."

My hands came up to her shoulders, but gently. So gently. Because she felt fragile under my touch, like she might break if I pushed too hard. Her skin was cooler than I remembered, and thinner. The sickness was taking pieces of her away bit by bit.

"Vivienne." I moved my face away from hers, creating space between our lips even as my heart pounded incessantly. "I can't. You know I can't."

"Why not?" Tears spilled down her cheeks, and I had to fight every instinct not to wipe them away. "Because of her? Because of Sera?"

I took a deep breath, my hands sliding down her arms before stepping back completely. The loss of her warmth felt like losing something precious all over again.

"Because I have a family now." The words came out rougher than I meant them to. "I have a daughter who needs stability. I have responsibilities."

"You have a wife who trapped you." Her voice turned sharp, angry. "Sera went to your grandfather, didn't she? She told him I wasn't good enough for the family name."

My jaw clenched so tight it hurt. Even now, even after all these years, the memory of that day made my blood boil. Grandfather George pulling me into his office, telling me about the marriage he'd decided. How did she manage to convince my grandfather, the coldest man I've ever known, to get me married to her?

Somehow she'd convinced him that Vivienne would never be the kind of wife a man in my position needed.

But she'd been right, hadn't she? Vivienne had left me for her music career. She'd chosen fame over love, even if grandfather had pushed her toward that choice.

"What's done is done." I ran a hand through my hair, messing up the style Sera had helped me fix this morning. "I won't destroy Luna's life because of mistakes made years ago."

"Mistakes?" Vivienne's voice cracked. "Is that what we were? A mistake?"

The pain in her eyes cut through me like glass. How could I explain that loving her had never been the mistake? The mistake was believing we could have had forever when forever wasn't something she'd ever wanted to give me.

"You left me, Vivienne." The words tasted bitter. "When grandfather offered you money to walk away, you took it. You chose your career over us."

"I was young and scared!" She grabbed my shirt, her fingers twisting in the fabric. "I thought I had time. I thought you'd wait for me to come back successful, proud of what I'd become."

"And now?" I gently pried her fingers loose, but I didn't let go of her hands completely. They felt cold and small in mine. "Now you're sick, and you want me to what? Abandon my family? Leave my daughter?"

"I want you to remember what we had." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Before the sickness takes everything away. Before I can't remember your face or the way you used to say my name." Her fingers trembled in my grasp, her lips quivered with emotion and her eyes glistened with tears I knew would fall if I didn't end this now, tears I knew would be my weakness the longer it continued.

My throat felt tight. The thought of her forgetting me, forgetting us, made something twist painfully in my chest. But Luna's laugh drifted through the door, reminding me why I couldn't give in to the selfish part of me that still loved this woman.

"I remember everything." I lifted one of her hands to my lips, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. "But I can't give you what you're asking for. I won't hurt Luna that way. And despite everything, I won't hurt Sera like that either."

Vivienne's face crumpled. "You still love me. I can see it in your eyes."

I didn't deny it. Couldn't deny it. "Love isn't always enough, Vivienne. Sometimes duty has to come first."

She stared at me for a long moment, and I saw the exact second when something hardened in her expression. The soft, vulnerable woman disappeared, replaced by someone I didn't quite recognize.

"Then I guess I'll have to find another way," she said quietly.

Before I could ask what she meant, Luna's voice called out from the other room.

"Daddy! Vivienne! Come see my castle!"

I stepped away from Vivienne completely, straightening my shirt and trying to look like a father instead of a man torn between his past and present.

"We should go," I said.

But the look in Vivienne's eyes as she followed me out made my stomach feel heavy. I'd let her down gently, just like I'd promised myself I would. For her sake, because she was dying. For my family's sake, because they came first.

I just hoped it would be enough to keep everyone safe.