That night Rin waited for Sesshomaru to come home. When he didn't arrive by two in the morning, she slept on the couch hoping to hear him when he came in. The next morning she woke up to see sunbeams streaking the room from behind the curtains. She stretched before checking her watch. "Nine o'clock! I missed Sesshomaru!"

She could not remember hearing him come in nor leaving. She opened his room to find that everything was exactly as it was the night before. Picking up the phone she called his cell phone to find it turned off. This caused her to panic, something she had never expected to feel where Sesshomaru was concerned.

His secretary had not seen him yet either, but he explained that he had a meeting at eight thirty in another office. Rin could tell from the secretary's voice that he was confused as to why Rin had called since she had pretty much stayed out of Sesshomaru's life thus far. The man promised to tell Sesshomaru to call her when he got into the office.

Rin waited by the phone nervously for an hour. She couldn't understand her sudden feelings, and she was afraid that they might be signs of a growing attachment she was developing for him. 'I can't fall in love with him. He doesn't love me, and when Toga dies I will have to leave his life for good. Love will only make things harder on me.'

The phone rang, and Rin pounced on it. "Sesshomaru?"

"Jaken told me that you called," his deep voice informed her.

"I was worried about you since you didn't come home last night, and your cell phone was turned off." She sat down again and tried to calm herself down.

"Since when did you care if I don't return home?"

"I..." Her mind started reeling as she tried to come up with a good excuse. 'Because I want to make everything right. Because I want you by my side for the rest of our lives. No, that would scare him.' "I wanted to apologize to you for yesterday morning. I prefer to do this in person."

"I don't have time today for you."

"Okay, then I'll do it over the phone." She took a deep breath in and exhaled before continuing. "I am sorry for insisting that you share the bed with me after you said it was a bad idea. I didn't listen, and then I lead you to believe that I...I wanted to be with you in that way." She could feel the heat rise to her cheeks.

There was silence on the other end before he answered, "I accept your apology."

"I hope things can return to the way they were before."

She swore he answered her hesitantly, "I hope so too," but she dismissed the preposterous feeling.

"I'm sorry, I won't call you again." She hung up the phone gently as she thought over the conversation. She did feel much better now that she had apologized.

For the next year Rin continued to go to church with Sesshomaru's family, Eri, and Sota. Rin decided that she was ready to give her life over to Jesus, but before she could do that she felt that she had to fix a couple of things in her life. She had arranged to meet with Naraku in the park at the place where he had proposed to her after he got off of work.

Rin arrived early to watch the people as they walked through the park on their way home from work. This was the most scenic place in the entire city, and she loved to come here to see all of the flowers blooming. Naraku came up from behind her, "Always looking at the flowers."

"Yes." He sat down next to her on the bench and stared at her. "Naraku, I asked you to come out here so that we can talk about...our past together."

"Go on." He leaned back and relaxed.

"There were things that happened back then that neither of us should be proud of. I pressured you into marrying me because I felt like I had to have a family. I am truly sorry for that, and for waiting so long to break up with you. But you have to realize that I...I was devastated back then, and I didn't realize that you were not at all right for me. I have started going to church again, and I know now that I shouldn't have listened to you. I will never hold that against you since it was my fault for not fighting you on the issue. However, I have not wanted to forgive you for hurting me, physically and mentally, but if I am to truly give myself to Christ, I must forgive you since Jesus has forgiven me for my sins. Therefore, I asked you to come here so that I could tell you that I want to put that pain behind me, and I wish to ask for forgiveness for forcing you to stay with me."

He stared ahead at the fountain before them. "I will not forgive you for that, nor will I feel sorry for what I have said and done to you. You deserved them."

"If that is how you feel, then I will not force you to feel anything different."

She stood to leave, but Naraku grabbed her arm and pulled her down. "I am not done with you yet. I want you to suffer just as much as I did by losing my business with your husband's family." He tightened his grip on her arm, but she did not wince hoping that she could fool him into believing she wasn't afraid of him. "I think you might find it interesting if you called your husband in the evenings. He's been keeping something a secret."

Rin struggled out of his grasp and shouted at him, "You're probably lying to make me doubt him. Whatever sick pleasure you're getting out of this...I hope that you choke on it and die!" 'Wait a second; you came out here to smooth out everything.' "Naraku, even if you are telling me a lie, I will not hold this against you. I shouldn't, and I won't." With that she walked home never looking back in fear that she might change her mind.