Page 96 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

Just as I can’t recall the last time I felt like this about a woman. She’s beautiful. The gown clings to her body, highlighting her narrow waist and following the lines of her legs. A slimmer fit, she told me in the limo, that wouldn’t interfere with her crutches. Her wheelchair is also easily accessible, stored in a spare room just outside the ballroom in case she gets tired or off balance with so many people around.

She questions her ability to run her own business, to persevere. Yet she’s constantly adapting, moving forward. She doesn’t give herself enough credit.

“Rafael.”

I tense, then slowly turn. Gavriil is walking across the ballroom floor toward me, his wife Juliette at his side. My brother looks almost nothing like me, with a thicker build and dark brown hair gifted to him by his mother, a hotel maid Lucifer seduced and abandoned.

The eyes, though…his eyes are the same pale blue as mine.

“I didn’t realize you were attending, too.”

I hear the cold in my own voice, see Gavriil’s eyes narrow slightly.

“When the museum was struggling to get ahold of you, they called me. We were already in the air when they notified us you were coming.” He looks down at the dark-haired woman by his side. His face changes, softens. “And Juliette’s never been to Greece.”

Gavriil smiles down at his wife. Seeing the change in him is jarring. When I last saw him at his wedding, he looked cold, determined. But now, as Juliette looks up at him with emotion shining in her eyes, he looks happy.

Envy twists through me. An envy I have no right to feel. I’m the only person who knows what Gavriil went through when he joined our household, what Lucifer put him through to prove himself. An eight-year-old boy left alone in the wake of his mother’s death with no support. Certainly no love or compassion offered to him as he grieved in a new place surrounded by a luxury he couldn’t even begin to comprehend after growing up in the slums.

And why was he left alone?a nasty voice whispers.

“It’s so good to see you in person, Juliette,” Tessa says with a smile. “You look beautiful.”

For a moment, I see a possibility before me. One where my brother and I are married, our wives are good friends, our conversations not overshadowed by our history.

And then the moment passes. I’m glad my brother has found happiness. But I have no interest in delving into a fantasy world I know will be gone sooner rather than later.

Juliette turns to Tessa. “Have you had a chance to dive?”

“Dive?” I repeat.

A light blush stains Tessa’s cheeks. “Katie and I got certified for scuba diving three months ago.”

Gavriil grins. “That’s awesome.”

He leans in and gives Tessa a hug with an ease and familiarity that stirs jealousy in my chest. If I’m being truthful with myself, I envied their relationship for years. How easily Gavriil could talk to Tessa. The relationship she built with him as I kept him at arm’s length for both our sakes.

“Thank you. Adaptive diving,” she says to me. “Once I’m in the water, I can do almost everything myself. I just can’t get in and out without some help.”

“Still,” I say, feeling like an echo of my brother, “it’s an accomplishment.”

“It was. It’s like a whole other world under the water.”

The music starts up again, a slower number set to sultry music that filters through the warm summer air. Gavriil holds out a hand to Juliette.

“May I have this dance?”

The smile she gives him is so sickeningly sweet I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. Tessa grins as she watches Gavriil sweep Juliette into an elaborate turn.

“He always did like to show off,” I say dryly.

She doesn’t respond. I follow her gaze, see the longing as she watches the dancers. A longing I feel deep inside my bones.

“Would you like to dance?”

She looks up at me, a hesitant smile on her lips. “I never have.”

“Neither have I.”

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