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Beth could feel her heart beating loud and fast. She hadn’t unexpected Raphael to pull her for a hug. His arms surrounded her, holding her close, and blood rushed up to her face.
Over the years, Beth had fallen for many men, maybe fallen in love with their wealth would be the right thing to say and then with their looks. And as much as she was trying to pin herself to marry someone of great calibre and status, nobody truly treated her the way she wanted them to treat her.
Though her family cared for her, it wasn’t the way she wanted it and not being able to find it inside the house, she had tried to find it outside. But the men who wanted to take her as their wife and the women who envied her because of how she looked never treated her with love and respect. Back then, she had been a young woman who could be swayed by materialistic things, and she had tried to find her happiness in it.
Even Markus had not been able to scratch the surface where Beth had been waiting for someone to knock at the door that she had built.
But with Raphael, it was different. He had broken the door. Was it because he had relentlessly cared for her since the beginning, always hovering over her until he left to Heaven.
Embarrassed with the sudden hug as it was the first time she had come into such close contact with a male, she stepped away from him. Her face was bright red and her eyes wide.
“W-what are you doing?” questioned Beth.
Her heart continued to beat loudly, and she saw Raphael offer her a smile. “For someone who has been under the limelight and showered with affections, who would have guessed that you would turn shy with a simple hug.”
Beth’s lips trembled while trying to think straight as she didn’t know why but her heart felt like it would explode in her chest.
“It is because this is different. It isn’t anybody but you,” replied Beth in a rushed tone, and one of her hands clutched onto her dress.
“Is that so?” Raphael questioned her, where they had only two steps of gap between them.
Her cheeks looked like berries, and her lips closed and parted very often as if she didn’t know what to do. Who knew she could look this adorable. Raphael was well aware of Beth’s feeling of how she had felt deprived of love from her grandparents and the protectiveness her parents provided her sister, but not her.
“I wasn’t ready for it,” whispered Beth. “You took me by surprise.”
“My apologies for it, but I would like to ask you to prepare yourself for it,” said Raphael, and he closed the gap between them by stepping forward.
Raphael put his arms around Beth, bringing her close to his heart, and this time, Beth didn’t move away. But her face did continue to turn bright in shyness.
“Thank you for wishing for me, Beth. I was worried that you might have forgotten me,” he said, one of his hands around her back and the other holding the back of her head.
“How could I,” it was less of a question as Beth spoke those words. “I thought you would never come back to the living world. I thought you would come only after I turned old and was near my deathbed,” she responded to him.
The smile on Raphael’s lips widened, and he couldn’t help but feel happy right now. He had been counting the days to return to her side, and he had only hoped for her to be alright. Making sure through the vessel that she didn’t get into any trouble, but she had done more than better.
Beth had never hugged a man before, and her hands stayed next to her sides while the archangel continued holding her.
“It was the antidote that had Vlad’s blood that didn’t let my wish go through. If it weren’t for that, I would have seen you earlier than now,” said Beth. The embrace was warm and everything she had dreamt of having even before she knew he existed. Somewhere, she was glad that she had the time to reform herself while he was away.
“I must say, I am more than impressed with you. You have done well,” he praised her.
Beth felt the card that she had been holding on disappear from her hold as it went back to Raphael.
Pulling away from each other, both of them sat next to each other on the edge of the bed.
“With the upliftment of punishment for both me and Paschar, we are not bound with any more punishments. But I believe Michael is working on reinforcing the rules when it comes to the mortals’ prayers and wishes, to make sure Vladimir doesn’t trick others into wishing things that might harm the people in Heaven,” explained Raphael, and Beth who was still red nodded her head.
“Does that mean you can stay here like before?” came Beth’s question, a small worry on her face.
“Unfortunately I cannot live in the living world as a demon as I used to be in the past, but I should be freely able to move back and forth between the living world and Heavenly realm,” hearing this, Beth nodded her head with relief.
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She wasn’t going to be a selfish person and wish for many things. Instead, she was going to make use with what she was given. She was more than happy to have Raphael sitting next to her now. It was better than him stuck in Heaven, where she would never get to meet him.
“But that doesn’t mean I will not get to stay here,” Raphael added in the end.
Hearing this, Beth turned to look straight into his golden-brown eyes, “You will stay in the castle?”
Raphael smiled at the hidden excitement behind Beth’s question, “Well, maybe not in the castle but I am going to speak to Gabriel and see if I can take his position of being the priest in the village. I am sure he wouldn’t mind, considering how he has been serving as a priest in Devon for years now.”
