Hopelessly Devoted

Chapter 49: Back to the Future

"I knew I'd find you here." Matvei turned to see his cousin Jenna looking at him and smiled. She looked gorgeous in white and her smile illustrated just how happy she was. "You always had a knack for sneaking out of family functions." She tsked.

She made her way towards him in the expansive garden outside the reception hall. The weather was perfect for Houston and they both appreciated it. "You look happy, Jenn. You deserve this." She smiled at him before punching him hard in the chest.

Matvei bent over and coughed loudly. "What the actual fuck, Jenna?!" She rolled her eyes as she mimicked his question. "Today is supposed to be the happiest day of my life, Matvei. I am supposed to be overjoyed and over the moon. I'm 99% there, but that nagging 1% is keeping me from being great."

Matvei rubbed his chest and sighed as he stood upright. "You and Mikhail are and have always been my favorites. Don't you think it hurts me to see you both hurting?" He ran a hand through his hair. A habit Jenna knew well. He did it when he was uncomfortable, frustrated or sad. In this case he was all three.

"I know about Alyssa's...parts." Matvei looked at her intently. "I'm a nurse by day, Matvei. I see all sorts of things. Multiple personality disorder is a lot, but it's not the worst thing. You've stared down drug lords and actual psychopaths. What's so outrageous about Alyssa's condition that you can't get over it and love her anyway?"

Silence engulfed them for a long while. "I went to see her." Matvei finally spoke. "I went to apologize, but it wasn't her. It was an alter who happens to hate me." Matvei let out a sigh. "I talked to my therapist and I really thought I could make us work, but I don't know how that's going to happen."

"I didn't know you had a therapist." Jenna said pleasantly surprised. "Yeah. Her name is Kinsley Rose. She's 6 years old." Jenna looked at her cousin dumbfounded before shaking her head.

"Matvei, Alyssa makes you happy. That's all that matters. You will figure out the rest as it goes. Take it day by day, hell minute by minute if you have to." He shook his head and Jenna knew he was about to say something stupid or stubborn or both.

"I'm not like Mikhail, Jenna. I don't bend and flow. I'm hard. Inflexible. She deserves someone that gets her. All of her. I just don't think that's me and I don't want to hold her back."

"And because of that stupid logic you're not holding her at all." Jenna shook her head once more. "I love you, Matvei. I will always be there for you, but you're wrong here. Deep down I know you see that. You have to. I need you to wake up and acknowledge what we all have understood for decades. You aren't hard or inflexible, you are just sad. You're sad because you got your heartbroken at a very young age and that kind of wound festers and sits if you let it."

Matvei stared at Jenna with sad eyes. "Your issue isn't with Alyssa or her parts. You love her and I think you love her parts, including the one that hates you because it's all Alyssa and she's all you need. You have to face your demons, Matvei and their leader is right behind you."

Matvei turned to see his mother walk out of the reception hall and towards them. "Be rid of her once and for all, Matvei and then live your life. Honestly and happily." Jenna patted his shoulder before walking past him.

Margarita tried to speak to Jenna, but she just flipped her off. Jenna never shied from expressing the blatant fact that she hated her aunt for all that she'd done and let be done to Matvei and Mikhail. Even at a young age she saw her for what she was. A monster in her own right.

"Your uncle is looking for you." Margarita spoke up after a beat. Matvei chuckled lowly. "And he sent the one person I hate the most." Margarita let out a huff. "If anyone has a right to hate anyone it's me."