Chapter 325: Happiness That Last

Maximilian had thought about it.

“Maybe she was angry with me.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“At the time, Alexander was already pulling away from her. Perhaps he was unhappy in his marriage. He stopped listening to her. I had never listened to her in the first place.”

A faint, humorless smile touched his mouth.

“Perhaps she wanted control. Or perhaps she wanted the reassurance that, when she grew old, at least one of her sons would still listen to her.”

Catherine listened quietly.

“And she was jealous of you,” he continued. “That jealousy may have turned into resentment. You were going to inherit the throne. Once we married, she probably believed I would always come second to you.”

He sighed.

“The seers simply told her what she wanted to hear. They gave her a reason to believe that what she feared was true.”

His gaze remained fixed on the horizon.

“But I don’t think even she expected it to end with your mother’s death. Or with everything that followed.”

He shook his head.

“It was all so terribly screwed up.”

Catherine nodded.

Human minds were vast, complicated things. Sometimes people could take a small hurt, feed it with jealousy, fear, and resentment, and turn it into something monstrous.

She had learned that lesson the hard way.

Looking back at her own life, Catherine realized how often other people’s jealousy had played a part in her suffering. She had not been wise enough to recognize it. And when she finally realized she was surrounded by threats, she had answered them with rage instead of strategy.

She had been na?ve. But she didn’t have to remain that way.

“Good thing you’re here with me,” she said.

Maximilian glanced at her.

“You tend to see things I don’t when I’m too close to them,” Catherine continued. “And you’re usually very good at telling me what I’m missing.”

“And you’re becoming very good at telling me when I’m being an idiot.”

Catherine smiled. “That too.”

His hand returned to her belly.

“We have a lot to teach our children,” she said softly. She rubbed her hand over the gentle curve beneath his.

The world would always contain hatred. There would always be jealousy, selfishness, cruelty, and people willing to hurt others because they were afraid of losing something.

They couldn’t protect their children from every one of those things. But they could teach them how to face them. They could teach them to remain kind without becoming na?ve. To be generous without allowing others to take advantage of them. To forgive without forgetting what they had learned.

Their goodness should never become their weakness.

“We do,” Maximilian said.

Catherine leaned her head against his shoulder. They would give their children more than wealth, titles, or a kingdom. They would give them everything they had learned from the lives they had already lived.

Perhaps that was what leaving a legacy truly meant—passing forward the wisdom that had taken a lifetime to earn.

It was then that Catherine’s phone rang. Maximilian picked it up and handed it to her. “Samantha.”

The moment Catherine answered, Samantha’s voice burst through the speaker. “He proposed!”

Catherine laughed.

“On a yacht! We’re in the middle of the ocean, and he—he actually knelt!” Samantha was practically shrieking with excitement. “Aunt Cathy! I’m engaged!”

Catherine could hear the rush of the sea and the distant voices of people celebrating around her.

“Congratulations, Samantha!”

“Congrats, Samantha!” Maximilian called loudly enough for his voice to carry through the phone.

“Oh, you’re there too! Thanks, Uncle!” Samantha was bubbling with happiness.

Then her voice suddenly dropped. “I need your help.”

Catherine smiled.

“With everything. I need to learn all those uppity arts and china and fancy parties and whatever else aristocrats do. Aunt Cathy, you’ll help me, won’t you?”

“Of course, I will.”

Why wouldn’t she?

“And…” Samantha’s voice became even quieter. There was a pause, followed by what sounded suspiciously like a door closing.

“Fudgie said something weird.”

“Weird?”

“He said you’re like his mother. You know… motherly.”

Catherine smiled. So Fitzgerald had told Samantha everything. At least, the important part.

“I don’t mind that,” Catherine said. “I’m your aunt. And if he thinks of me as a mother, then I’m honored.”

“You’re not weirded out?”

“No. Why would I be?”

Catherine chuckled.

Samantha let out a long breath. “Okay. I’m getting a million calls. I’ll talk to you later! Bye!”

The call ended. Catherine lowered the phone, still smiling.

“He did it,” she said happily. “He’s getting married. Sammy is perfect for him. Oh, Maximilian, I’m so happy for them!”

Maximilian chuckled. He was happy for them too.

That evening, their home filled with the familiar chaos of a Preston family gathering.

Bobby had taken charge of the brisket. There was wine, laughter, loud cheers, men shouting across the room, and enough food to feed an army. Catherine sat comfortably among them with her boring glass of non-alcoholic wine, watching everything unfold with a smile.

Her gaze eventually landed on Bobby and Sophia.

They had been married for almost twenty-three years, yet they still behaved as though they were newlyweds half the time. Bobby was fussing over the brisket while Sophia hovered around him, giggling, wiping the sweat from his forehead, and generally making herself so physically affectionate that Catherine couldn’t help but laugh.

“How do you two keep the spark alive?” Catherine asked.

Sophia turned toward her. She was slightly drunk already.

“You can’t always make butterflies in someone’s stomach,” she said solemnly.

Catherine waited.

“But you can keep their heart rate elevated.”

She gave Catherine a mischievous grin.

“Watch me.”

Sophia turned toward the kitchen. “Bobby! Handsome!”

Bobby immediately dropped his tongs and walked over. “What?”

Sophia giggled. “I wanted to tell you something.”

“What?”

“This red engine light has been blinking in my car for a while.”

She leaned against him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Bobby’s expression changed instantly. “For how long?”

Sophia blinked. “For a while.”

“This woman…”

He muttered something under his breath that Catherine suspected would not be appropriate around children. Then came a string of increasingly colorful expletives as Bobby marched out of the room.

Sophia merely giggled. She turned back to Catherine with a satisfied smile.

“See?”

Catherine stared after Bobby. “He loves you.”

“Exactly.”

Catherine sighed, though she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “You’re going to give my brother a heart attack.”

“He’ll be fine.”

Sophia waved dismissively.

Catherine smiled. The exchange reminded her of the early days of her marriage to Maximilian. Once, she had tried to start her car and it simply wouldn’t move.

She had called Maximilian.

He had come over, peeked in, looked at the dashboard for approximately three seconds, and immediately identified the problem.

“There’s no gas.”

Catherine had blinked.

“How did you let it run empty?”

She had blinked again.

“I forgot to tell Bobby.”

Maximilian had stared at her. “You don’t put gas in your own car?”

“How do I do that?”

His eyebrows had twitched. “Your family has a fuel pump inside the compound.”

That had been news to Catherine.

“So Bobby fills it for you?”

“When it gets near E, I tell Bobby. The next day, it gets back to F.”

Maximilian had looked at her as though he had just discovered a completely new species of human being.

Catherine hadn’t cared. She knew she wasn’t stupid. She simply didn’t know everything. And, as far as she could tell, she didn’t need to.

From that day onward, the needle in her car had never gone anywhere near E again. She eventually figured out that Maximilian had quietly taken over the responsibility himself.

Thinking about it now, Catherine couldn’t help but laugh.

Maybe that was marriage too. You didn’t have to be perfect at everything.

You just had to find someone who understood the things you were terrible at, someone who could laugh at your absurdities without making you feel small, and someone who would quietly take care of the things you kept forgetting.

Catherine glanced across the room at Maximilian. He was talking to someone, completely unaware that she was watching him. Her smile softened.

They were still learning each other. They would probably keep learning each other for the rest of their lives.

And looking at the chaos around her—the laughter, the arguments, the ridiculous married couples, the newly engaged young ones—Catherine thought perhaps that was what a family was supposed to look like: messy, loud, ridiculous, and happy.

She rested a hand over her belly.

Maybe they would survive too.