[[OLD]] A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Author's Note

And so Menza's story comes to a close.

I know I said that this story would end happy but not how you might expect. There was no whispered I love yous, no grand gestures of forgiveness, no gentle sighs of soft requited love, but there was the love a daughter has for her mother, the love a father has for the child he has claimed as his own, and the love that can only come from reuniting with those you have thought were long lost.

Menza's ending was a touch... bittersweet, because while she gained so much love, while she was given back so much of what had been taken from her, she also experienced her mother's last goodbye. I couldn't leave her story without her being able to close that chapter in her life. She deserved to have what had been denied her when she had been so young and Obediaus deserved to be the one to give it to her, the father she should have had, doing what her father should have done.

Obediaus and Uzoamaka's story was a long line of tragedy that struck again and again and in the end their love couldn't conquer death, but as with Chrissie and Menza, there was a promise to love the child left behind enough for them both. And despite it all, despite the tragedy that struck at Obediaus' heart again and again, he loves Menza, deeply and truly because his Uzo can't. He loves her enough for them both and in the end, that is all you truly need.

Someone who loves you enough to love you through it all.

As Menza says, sometimes love can be messy and imperfect. It can hurt and be painful and it can make you crazy and so angry you can barely breathe but that doesn't stop it from being love. Sometimes love is loving someone despite those feelings because you can love them through it. Sometimes that's all that you need to do, all you can do.

Menza's story wasn't the happy ending you might have been expecting. She didn't forgive or forget, she didn't fall into Brochan's arms with a tearful apology after a grand gesture asking for forgiveness. Her story doesn't end with any of that. Her future is still up in the air but she understands the choice she has to make. I left it that way because sometimes, for those of us who read these stories, chapters in our lives don't end with a pretty bow. They can end harshly, they can end quickly you can't get closure, they can fade without answers, they can grow apart.

The end of this story is very much like that. There is no true closure because these things, the decision Menza has to make, is not something that can be tied up all pretty while still being real. So she acknowledges Duffy's words, Obediaus' words. That sometimes when you love someone you choose to love them despite it all. That sometimes love doesn't come with forgiveness but it comes in spite of it.

She doesn't know what she will choose but five months is not a long time to work through the trauma that happened. It's not long enough to even understand what that trauma has done to you. Menza is there. She knows her choice but she also knows she doesn't have to make it right away. She has time, the most important thing someone can have when it comes to healing. But most of all, she has her family with her, both found and blood and they will help her through what the Old Ways has done to her. Because that is what this story was truly about. It was about how insidious and cruel those ways can be, how power hungry and cruel the Alphas can be and how the ranks utilize the structures in place to brutalize others.

But it was also to show that even when we are embroiled in the worst of the world. There is still kindness that grows tall with roots that grow deep and strong. It's in a brother loving his sister despite what his parents want. It's in someone standing up and saying no to those in authority to try and protect someone they never thought they would protect. It's in someone reaching out a soft hand and saying 'this is not okay'. It's in someone picking another up because they aren't wearing shoes and the ground is cold. It's in buying someone a coat, in telling a funny story, in giving a gift that means the world, and it means that even when you are so angry you can't stand it, that you let someone go to save them.

But that is what humanity is, is it not? That no matter how dark things get, kindness will be there. No matter how many people are out there that will knock someone down, that there is another person who will help them up, who will tell them to stop, who will say 'this isn't right'. Because we are inherently good and we are kind and we love with everything that we have.

So even in the Old Ways, we see kindness and we see love. Could we see forgiveness?

Perhaps. But that is another tale to tell but the start is there. It's in a male doing everything he can to confront the traditions that had been bred into him and working hard to change his perception of the world to be better. Will it be enough?

That's only for Menza to decide.

Thank you for joining me on the amazing journey. A lot when into making it. Over a year of writing, several rewritten outlines, ninety-one chapters, four hundred thousand words, and half my sanity but I am glad this tale was told. I am glad you got to read it, and if you take away anything from this story, anything at all, remember that no matter how dark the world seems, no matter how cruel, there will always be someone out there who is willing to reach out their hand, raise their voice to say no, and love you despite it all.

Cheers.

Anna