Chapter 527 Wife’s healing words

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Sometimes, healing doesn’t mean learning to live without the pain. It means finding the courage to feel it, to let yourself break when you need to, and to understand that even after losing someone you love, you’re still allowed to find your way back to life.

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(Music Recommendation: The Earth Prelude by Ludovico Einaudi.)

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Viola and Sebastian stood on the terrace, hugging and comforting each other until they both lost track of time. Sebastian’s red-rimmed silver eyes slowly turned toward the sky, where he silently searched for the stars but found none in the hazy winter night. He felt his heart prick a little as a smile slowly spread across his face, his arms tightening around his wife.

“I wonder if she got her wish…” Sebastian’s quiet voice reached his wife, who turned to follow his line of sight toward the sky, her eyes narrowing in confusion at his words until he continued.

“Zoe, when she was eight, dreamed of becoming a star until we forbade her from ever thinking like that. Matt and I…” His words suddenly trailed off at the thought of his friend, whom he had grown cold toward after his sister’s death.

Sebastian closed his eyes, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair before asking, “He’s gone, right?”

He was referring to his friend, whose resignation letter Sebastian had found on his desk weeks ago. Although head Betas rarely retired, since it was a position everyone wanted, Matt had left it behind. Sebastian had barely given the letter another look, nor had he been informed of Matt’s whereabouts or even bothered to ask when he stopped seeing him around.

Viola nodded slowly. “He’s left for Mexico and has no date of returning. I’m sorry you two grew apart like that…” she mused, still looking at the sky, though all she could see were snowflakes drifting through the dark night.

“In life, we lose friends and grow apart.”

“I made us grow apart,” Sebastian muttered quietly. “But maybe we both needed time apart to heal, or maybe something else will bring us together again. I don’t know, but… I don’t want to lose anyone again. I’ll follow your lead in healing and trying to move on. And I want it to start tonight.”

Sebastian wanted to heal with the belief that his sister was in the sea, but he wasn’t the kind of man to cling to hope when he knew there was little chance of it being true, not unless he was willing to let his wife go, too. And he couldn’t bear to lose anyone else. He wanted to start learning how to heal and move forward like everyone else instead of remaining stuck in one place.

Viola smiled against his chest, loving that he was finally opening up and being vulnerable with her after months of shutting her out. Slowly, she could finally feel the heaviness in his heart flowing into hers, and she felt the backs of her eyes sting as his sadness settled over her as though the feelings were entirely her own.

His pain was immense, and she was consumed by the tenfold sadness she knew he carried. Her stomach turned over as she felt the weight of it.

“You’re hurting so much,” she muttered softly, biting down on her lower lip.

“I am hurting…” he admitted. “And I don’t want to hurt anymore. Can you tell me how to move on from here and not carry this feeling with me all the time?”

He dipped his head until his mouth was against her ear, his harsh breathing brushing against her skin.

Viola had no guidelines for something like this, but with his feelings transferring freely into hers, she knew it might take some time. Still, they would work through it together somehow.

“First, live every day like you used to. If you think of her, embrace the thought. If you feel like crying, my love, cry. If you want to reminisce, do it. Accept it, no matter how heavy it feels, and if you want to talk about her, I’ll be there. Slowly, it will feel less heavy,” she told him.

“Thank you,” he whispered into her neck, kissing her there and threading his fingers through the strands of dark, silky hair that fell over her winter coat.

“Thank you,” he added in a quieter, deeper voice that sent a warm trail down Viola’s spine. She thought that somehow, they would come out of this stronger.

The couple stood for who knew how long on that terrace, wrapped in each other’s embrace, until eventually, the cold became a little unbearable. Despite being werewolves, their human forms were still exposed to the elements, and Sebastian was the first to break the hug, knowing he shouldn’t keep his wife out in such weather.

Without a word, he bent down and scooped his wife into his arms, carrying her back into the office and closing the sliding glass door behind him. Viola snuggled comfortably against him, and when he adjusted her in his arms, she peered up at him with flushed cheeks and pursed lips.

Sebastian, who was carrying her out of the office and heading back home, noticed her looking up at him. Her adorable cheeks were flushed, something he had only just noticed made her look even more adorable, with a certain glow that must have come with her pregnancy. Her large blue eyes were fixed on him, and he couldn’t help asking,

“Something on your mind, honey?” He looked down at her as he stepped into their private elevator.

Viola bit the inside of her cheek.

“I can walk. You don’t have to carry me and pretend I’m not heavy… I’ve grown chubby and fat,” she whispered, almost self-consciously, expecting him to notice and put her down to walk back to their penthouse.

It had been two months since she’d last been held by him like this, and now that he was finally holding her again, she couldn’t stop wondering whether he was noticing all the changes in her body. The way she’d become rounder, the way her clothes no longer fit properly, and how unattractive she sometimes felt when she looked at herself in the mirror.

Sebastian looked down at his wife, his eyes narrowing and his brows drawing together in a serious frown.

“Where is the fatness?” he asked.

He carried her effortlessly higher in his arms, as though to demonstrate just how little she weighed to him. All he could see when he looked at her was her beauty, and how she’d managed to bring him out of his darkest world with just a few words and the warmth of her embrace on the terrace.

Deep in Sebastian’s heart, there was still a gaping hole left by his sister’s absence, one he believed nothing could ever truly fill. But holding Viola now made him less aware of it, and he knew that, given time, if he learned from her, he might be able to accept his grief instead of allowing it make him block everyone out.

Yet, hearing the insecurities in her voice made him curse himself a little for not paying closer attention to how much she had been worrying about these little things that didn’t matter to him and shouldn’t matter to her either. She was damn sexy and beautiful to him, and to hell with whoever thought otherwise. Before the night ended, Sebastian would make sure to convince her of it.