The Duke's Passion

"I love you."

Silence. I raised my brows and glanced at everyone who attended our small wedding held in the mansion's garden. The wedding was simple as we preferred one that only the important people to our family to witness. Also, even though Sam could afford a grand wedding, the mainland wasn't a safe place for our guests.

"Hell, is that your marriage vow?" Klaus voiced out from his seat behind us. "Is that even a vow? I love you?"

"I can do better than that.." Claude chimed in.

"Wasn't he an artist? Can't he express himself even more than just those overused love confessions?" Silvia cast Rufus and Dominique a look while carrying Sunny. Law was holding Rufus' hands. Meanwhile, Kristina and Noah just looked at each other. Yulis, who was with them, remained silent in the corner as if he didn't want to be noticed.

"My mother deserves more promises than that." Law nodded.

"Maybe the person who is facilitating this wedding is at fault." Rufus rubbed his chin while gazing at Fabian. Yes. Fabian was the person we asked to facilitate this wedding. We didn't have a choice.

"Your Majesty, you're very smart! This is why you are in charge!" Klaus clapped, agreeing with Rufus' ridiculous conclusion.

It seemed they still held a grudge against him after Fabian let them all stay in the prison for weeks. If only I knew about it, I would've fetched them myself. But Sam also forgot about it because we had been busy.

Fabian still had his usual smile. "You're already husband and wife, but I still pronounce you as one. You may now kiss the bride." He darted his eyes between Sam and me while rubbing his ring.

"Fabian, I just want a nice wedding. Stop touching your ring." Sam, whose expression was already dead, sighed. "My Lilou, my love, my sun and moon, my world, we should have held this wedding with just the two of us. Our guest kept pressing my nerves and the person who facilitated our wedding was crazy. I am utterly disheartened... I wanted to fucking cut their tongues for good."

I chuckled as I held Sam's hands while he ground his teeth. My eyes softened as a faint sigh slipped past my lips.

"I love you too, Sam." I stepped forward, standing on my toes, and planted a peck on his lips. "Have more patience, hmm?"

Sam clicked his tongue, but after I kissed him a second time, he just frowned. As I hooked my arms around him, we faced our guests. They clapped and smiled genuinely, shouting congratulations. It was just us, but honestly, my heart felt full.

'It was perfect.' My smile remained as my eyes gloss over at everyone's faces. 'Not everyone is here, but I am still glad that they came.'

My first wedding was held in the middle of the night and looked more like a funeral. But my second wedding, a decade later, was... also not the dream wedding the young version of Lilou dreamt about. Although the weather was nice and clean, it wasn't held in the church and our guests weren't all the people I knew back in Grimsbanne.

Even so, this was the dream wedding of the current Lilou.

Simple, but was spent with the people who were close to our hearts.

"I feel exhausted," Sam grumbled as he leaned his head closer, resting it on my shoulder. "My love, shall we skip the afternoon banquet and proceed to our honeymoon?"

I laughed. "Sam, I might think you simply want this wedding for the honeymoon."

"Obviously," he mumbled, but I pretended I didn't hear him.

"What?"

"Nothing, my love. I love you, so I will wait patiently." A forced grin plastered across his face before facing our guest. Sam then invited everyone to the greenhouse we built last year. The greenhouse, Fabian, Sam, Tilly, Law, and I built together.

******

In the greenhouse, there was a long table where we all prepared the food since dawn. Since we were short of hands, Silvia, Kristina, Noah, and Claude lent us help. Although Claude just ate the entire time since he didn't have a knack for preparing foods.

"Our dearest guest, I hope you enjoy the food we prepared together." Sam gestured for everyone to eat as soon as the last person took a seat. But just as everyone excitedly picked up their cutleries, we all stopped.

"I'm pregnant," Silvia spoke loudly, causing silence in the greenhouse. Even I was confused. She was pregnant all along? Sam and I looked at each other, just like everyone else. My husband shrugged as he was equally shocked at this bomb Silvia just dropped.

Out of instinct, I turned my attention to Yul. He was sitting at the far end of the table, sitting beside Ramin. I could understand the shock plastered on his face, as it seemed his entire world just stopped.

"My lady, you are... pregnant?" Kristina inquired, breaking the silence that was beginning to thicken. "You?"

"Yes. I am."

"I'm having a cousin?" Law gasped excitedly. My son was the only person who didn't have a question mark hovering over his head.

Noah knitted his brows as well. "Who... is the father?"

"Your Majesty, is it you?" Klaus gasped, and we all shifted our eyes to Rufus. However, the man in question also seemed confused.

"My lady, please clarify this misunderstand." Rufus raised his brows briefly.

"I'm pregnant with Yul's child."

"..." There was a long silence in the room as we tried to analyze her clarification. Was that even called an explanation? When it only added another question mark in our head? Yul's child? Did she mean she gave birth to Yul's child? But her words were clear. She was pregnant with Yul's child. But how was that possible? Yul had been here with us for years!

The silence broke when Sam suddenly clapped. "Via, are you keeping your child for three years now? I'm surprised your belly didn't grow big! Can you tell Lilou the secret so she won't hurt her back every time her belly gets big? We planned to have sextuplets."

"Hell, I understand your intention. But are you not concerned for your wife's well-being?" asked Klaus in dismay, scrunching his nose. I ignored my husband's nonsense and set my eyes on Silvia, just like the rest.

She slowly turned her head and faced Yulis. "Beatrice told me to keep a man, tie him with a child. Take responsibility, Yulis Kieran Bloodfang."

"Uhm.... you should be pregnant for that, though?" this time, Tilly finally spoke, but her voice soon faded into the thick silence in the air.