“So won’t you reconsider?” Megumi asked, her eyes entreating. “Why are you refusing at all?”
He turned somber eyes to Hashimoto. “Because I haven’t forgotten what you said about Scarlett, how you viewed her. Scarlett is and has always been the most upstanding and heroic person I know. I don’t only worship her, but I respect and admire her more than anyone in the world. I would have nothing but the absolute best for her, and I would certainly never expose her to being considered an evil to be tolerated but secretly reviled, because your family still needs me.”
Scarlett threaded her arm through his and looked up at him, her eyes silently scolding. “Mr. Hashimoto was under too much pressure at the time, not to mention misconceptions.”
Hashimoto jumped on Scarlett’s life raft. “That is true, and I now regret my words, and my thoughts. I had no proof to support them but hearsay, just because your presence went against my family’s best interests. Can you possibly accept my apology and my assurances that my opinion was one of ignorance and self-service, but one that I have irrevocably changed?”
“Of course I accept, Mr. Hashimoto,” Scarlett said fervently. “I almost caused you all huge losses, just being there, just loving Raiden. And like Hiro said, it’s no thanks to me that everything has been averted and we’ve reached this happy moment.” As Raiden began to protest, she turned to him and hugged him around the waist, all her love in her eyes. “Let’s not dwell on anything that happened before today. The past is dead and gone. Let’s only remember the good parts of it, and look forward to a magnificent future.”
He knew what she meant. They might never be able to forget the past, but it had led them to this point, where they were unimaginably blessed by having each other.
She brought him down to her for a fierce, brief kiss. “But we both do need a family, to make up for the ones we lost. And it will be the best thing for our coming baby, and any other children we will have, to have a big family to dote on them.”