“I know,” Ari said, and he did. They had said it before to each other; but if he had needed more proof of it, that Dionisia had learned his secret and had kept it since then was good enough for him. And so it made no difference whether she had an affair or twenty, because at the end of the day he trusted her, found he did not mind placing that responsibility in someone’s hands. (If only he could do the same with the rest of his family, but that was - different. They had known him too long. There was too much to lose.)
Squeezing her fingertips back in answer, he gave a wry smile at the question. Bewildered as he had been by her admission of wanting more children, now that he was over the initial shock of it, Ari found he was already warming swiftly to the idea. Perhaps it was because he’d come from such a big family, had been the eldest, might have been the only child and lonely forever if he had not been joined by Julian and Katia and the rest. Perhaps it was because, in always assuming he would not marry, he’d never imagined children would be something he would ever get to have, had not dared to picture it until it had happened, had not realised how much he would love it.
And what did it matter if they were his or not, anyway? “Of course I would. I love Elliott more than I even thought possible,” he admitted - and it did feel something like a confession, for he hadn’t ever said it so plainly before, though he felt like Dionisia must have gleaned as much from being around them - “and another child would be no different, I promise you. After all,” Ari added, a corner of his smile stretching a little further as he fought the temptation to laugh, with some strange lightness of finally being able to joke about it, “I’ve always been rather good at loving people I shouldn’t.”
Squeezing her fingertips back in answer, he gave a wry smile at the question. Bewildered as he had been by her admission of wanting more children, now that he was over the initial shock of it, Ari found he was already warming swiftly to the idea. Perhaps it was because he’d come from such a big family, had been the eldest, might have been the only child and lonely forever if he had not been joined by Julian and Katia and the rest. Perhaps it was because, in always assuming he would not marry, he’d never imagined children would be something he would ever get to have, had not dared to picture it until it had happened, had not realised how much he would love it.
And what did it matter if they were his or not, anyway? “Of course I would. I love Elliott more than I even thought possible,” he admitted - and it did feel something like a confession, for he hadn’t ever said it so plainly before, though he felt like Dionisia must have gleaned as much from being around them - “and another child would be no different, I promise you. After all,” Ari added, a corner of his smile stretching a little further as he fought the temptation to laugh, with some strange lightness of finally being able to joke about it, “I’ve always been rather good at loving people I shouldn’t.”
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Benedict Sterling, Elsie Kirke, J. Alfred Darrow, Lachlan MacFusty, Zelda Darrow
