Darejani Pt. 06

She cried for a while more, gradually settling down. She said "I'm a terrible person! The night before the wedding, I couldn't sleep, I was thinking how glad I was that my father was dead. What kind of horrible person thinks that about their father? I'm just awful, Mickey. Awful." She was sobbing softly, her face buried on my shoulder. I couldn't get her to look at me.

"Dar, my love, please look at me. Please." She kept her face hidden. I gently took her chin and turned her head until her eyes were looking into my own. They were wet with her tears, making them look larger than they actually were. "Honey. listen to me. I understand why you feel this way. You have every right to feel it. From everything you've told me, your father turned from a loving family man into a bitter, cruel control freak. He wanted to destroy your life for his own twisted version of what he thought you and your mother had to be. Subservient. Silent. With no say in your future or even your present. I shudder to think what he was planning to force you to do, to marry someone who probably wouldn't have even cared about you, let alone love you. He would have even married you off to someone who could have beaten you, god forbid, even killed you. It makes me ache in my gut to think of what he could have done to you. At the least, he would have ruined your life. Darejani, you're a beautiful, kind, funny, loving and passionate woman. You're smart too. And it all would have been wasted if your father had his way. Maybe it was God or whatever higher power is out there that saved you from that fate. It was your father that kept us apart for six years, six years we lost. I consider it a miracle that we're married now. You know I'm not a believer. But being with you is a great argument for there being a god of some sort. You have nothing to feel ashamed of." I held her as tight as I could without hurting her. "I love you, and I'm going to love you every day for the rest of my life. That's how I'm going to honor you. Dar, there is nothing wrong with you. You're thankful for getting your own life back. And your mother would tell you the same thing if you told her about this. You have nothing to feel guilty about. You deserve to be loved. By me."

By now Dar was just sniffling away her tears. I stroked her face again, running my fingers through her hair. "Mickey, are you telling me the truth? Not just what I want to hear?"

"My word of honor, my love. We deserve to be happy together. You also saved me from marrying the wrong woman. So his dying also saved me too. But the most important part is it saved your life, and your mother's too. Even your brother. He could never have come to terms with his own sexuality if your father was still alive."

Dar settled down, and rested her head on my chest. She ran her fingers through my chest hair, like she did hundreds of times. "You're the best thing to ever happen to me, Mickey. By far. I'm going to spend my life making you thankful you married me."

"Too late. I'm already there. And we've been married a whole day so far. Now, we should clean up, make sure everything is packed so we can get some sleep and be ready to leave early in the morning. We've got a great honeymoon ahead of us, We need to get some rest. Go wash up; I'll get our things together and stick them in a suitcase. Then I'll get what I need for the morning together, and while I wash up you can do the same. Then we'll get a good night's sleep. Until 6:30."

"Ugh. Don't remind me. Mickey...thank you. You're the best, my love. My love and my best friend. You've been that for a long time. You were my first friend in this country."

"You're my best friend too, darling. I love you." We kissed and just hugged for a minute more. Then we did what we had to. We had a honeymoon to start the next morning. Early the next morning.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As always, I appreciate your votes and comments. I may take a short break from Dar and Mickey's romance to work on some of my other stories for a while. But I will return to them.