Maris had growled angrily at him. “I really hate you.”

Darling hadn’t reacted to his hostility. “I love you, Mari. I always have and always will. And I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t wish my current existence on anyone, especially not you. You’ve seen what everyone has done to me and how they’ve all treated me because they think I’m gay. In your position, I’d marry her and deal with it as best I could. But at the same time, I know exactly how you feel right now, and how hard it is to walk a lie every single day of your life. This is your moment in the hallway, Mari. This one decision, either way, will viciously impact the rest of your life, and you will have to live with the consequences of it. Neither option will be pleasant for you. You are screwed both ways. But whatever you choose, I will be here for you. And I will protect you any way I can.”

“But you won’t sleep with my wife for me, you worthless beast.”

“You know I can’t.”

Maris had sighed wearily as he debated what to do. “Would you sleep with me, then?”

“Maris…”

“I know, Dar. I know.”

Even all these years later, Maris could still remember that nauseated feeling inside him as he’d walked down the aisle with Darling by his side.

Not to get married, but to tell everyone present why he couldn’t.

And that memory was one he never wanted to revisit.

Coming back to the present, he looked at Zarya. “To this day, I owe Darling everything. His support never wavered. I know he would have been there for me had I married her. Instead, he was there when I told my entire family and every dignitary present that I was gay. That was the worst moment of my life.” He winced as he remembered their extremely unpleasant reactions. “My father even attacked him over it.”

“Why?”

“Brace yourself,” he said bitterly. “They thought it was all Darling’s fault. That he’d converted me. To quote my father, I would never have been gay had that filth not infected me.”

Zarya cringed as she saw the pain in Maris’s dark eyes. She couldn’t believe his family had thought such a thing.

“Would you believe my family even tried to sue him over it?”

She gaped. “What?”

He nodded grimly as he raised his right hand. “Swear to the gods.” He lowered his hand and looked away from her. “You know that scar Darling has on his thigh? The one shaped like a star?”

How could she forget? It was the one that had allowed her to identify him when he’d been in their custody. “Yes.”

“My eldest brother Kyr tried to castrate him on my wedding day. Luckily, Darling’s a better fighter than Kyr is.”

Her heart breaking for both of them, she pulled Maris into her arms and held him close. “I’m so sorry for what both of you went through.”