Hashimoto suddenly leaned forward, took Raiden’s hand and Scarlett’s, gathered them together and held them in both of his. “After all the dust settled, I remembered when you said how you’d wished we would have been family. I still feel the same way. I am here offering you the name of our family, and the place at its head—the same things you would have gotten through the marriage adoption. But now I’m offering them through adoption alone.”
Though that was yet another development in a string of unexpected ones, the strange part was what Raiden had been so passionate about ten weeks ago didn’t turn a hair in him now. He truly had everything he wanted or needed as long as he had Scarlett.
He shook his head. “This is no longer something I want or need. My family is right here.” He tightened his arm around Scarlett’s shoulder. She only looked up at him with eyes that were at once stricken and admonishing.
“But this time we don’t only want you, we want to adopt you as a married couple,” Hashimoto rushed to add. “And this is what our family hopes you would both consider—both of you taking our family name, making our family yours.”
A long moment of silence followed his offer.
Then Raiden exhaled. “That’s a very generous offer, Takeo-sama, but I still have to decline.”
“But why, Raiden-san?” That was Megumi, at last breaking her usual silence. “We would have been catastrophic as spouses, but I just know it’s because you were meant to be my brother. And I would love nothing more than to have Scarlett-san as my sister.”
“And now Hashimoto-sama has agreed to give me Megumi-chan’s hand in marriage,” Hiro said eagerly. “I would no longer be only your friend, but your brother, too.”
Delighted for both him and Megumi, Raiden clapped him on the back again. “You move fast, don’t you, Hiro? Good for you.” He turned to Megumi, who was blushing delicately. “You two feel to me as if you were once one whole that was split into two. It’s so good seeing you becoming one again.”