diff --git a/arrow-variant/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/variant/extension/TestVariantVector.java b/arrow-variant/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/variant/extension/TestVariantVector.java
index 1c172e304f..c68aedaa21 100644
--- a/arrow-variant/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/variant/extension/TestVariantVector.java
+++ b/arrow-variant/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/variant/extension/TestVariantVector.java
@@ -769,7 +769,9 @@ void testGetObject() {
         ArrowBuf metadataBuf = allocator.buffer(10);
         ArrowBuf valueBuf = allocator.buffer(10)) {
 
-      byte[] metadata = new byte[] {1, 2};
+      // Version 1, empty dictionary (single header byte) - a structurally valid variant
+      // metadata, since getObject() eagerly parses the metadata header.
+      byte[] metadata = new byte[] {1};
       byte[] value = new byte[] {3, 4, 5};
       metadataBuf.setBytes(0, metadata);
       valueBuf.setBytes(0, value);
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0552a02c72..cb2f3d087a 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ under the License.
     <dep.hadoop.version>3.5.0</dep.hadoop.version>
     <dep.fbs.version>25.2.10</dep.fbs.version>
     <dep.avro.version>1.12.1</dep.avro.version>
-    <dep.parquet.version>1.17.1</dep.parquet.version>
+    <dep.parquet.version>1.18.1</dep.parquet.version>
     <dep.mockito-bom.version>5.23.0</dep.mockito-bom.version>
     <arrow.vector.classifier/>
     <forkCount>2</forkCount>