[ How does he even begin to break something like this to her? A part of him is sorely tempted to lie, to retract everything that he had already said and implied, offer her up some beautiful alternative where they had both gotten the perfect happy ending they had both so wanted.

But- it wouldn't be fair, it wouldn't be just. Erina deserved everything and more and that includes the truth from him.

With a heavy sigh, Jonathan sits down beside her, immediately taking one of her hands in his own. He's counting on her to give him the strength to get through telling her this.

Sensing the sombre change in atmosphere, Pesto, for his part sits patiently at Erina's feet - of course he had taken to her. It had been inevitable from Jonathan's point of view. ]

You recall that we were planning on travelling to America after the wedding, do you not?

There was... an incident on board the ship. [ "Incident" feels like the biggest understatement of a word but he can't think how else to describe it without being ruthless - a tragedy? A massacre? He thinks of their fellow passengers with that last one.

He takes another deep breath as he looks her in the eyes, gently squeezing her hand. ]

It was Dio.

What little was left of him had been smuggled on board- I managed to halt his plot but I did not make it off of that ship, Erina.