Before His Wedding, the Good Girl He Used Quietly Vanished Chapter 06

Before His Wedding, the Good Girl He Used Quietly Vanished Chapter 06

The lighter slipped out of Nolan’s hand and hit the coffee table with a sharp click.

It rolled twice and stopped against the fruit bowl.

“What? A proposal?”

The other two looked up.

Every set of eyes in the room landed on Everett.

Everett didn’t look at any of them.

He shrugged off his jacket and hung it over the back of his chair.

“Are you serious?”

Nolan sat up straight. “Didn’t you just say yesterday that an arranged marriage had to be between equals?”

“Depends on how you define equals.”

He sat down, opened a drawer, and reached for his cigarettes.

“And how do you define it?”

“I couldn’t put a price on what she’s given me the past three years. If anything, she’s the one settling. I can’t give her what she actually wants.’

“Everett, have you lost your mind?”

Everett didn’t bother answering. He just ignored him.

“I called you guys here to help me figure out how to get her to say yes.”

Nolan stared at him.

“Since when do you need permission? You’ve always just picked them up and brought them home.”

“This is different.”

He leaned back without explaining how.

“All those girls you brought home before, did you ever once ask if they wanted to come?”

Miles Langley leaned back. “You’ve always called every shot.”

“They’re not her.” Everett flicked his ash. “She’s the only one who lasted three years.”

He took a slow drag, the cherry burning bright before he let out the smoke.

“She’s too obedient. That’s the problem. Her dad tells her to get married, and she just packs up and disappears in the middle of the night without a word.”

The room went quiet.

Miles sat forward. Everett’s friend Graham Wells put down his phone.

“Wait, her dad says marry and she just… goes? No pushback?” Graham asked.

“She sure as hell didn’t tell me.” Everett tapped the ash. “Three years I kept her, and all it took was

a train ticket to lose her.”

Nolan clicked his tongue.

“Then what the hell are you waiting for? Put the ring on her finger.”

“Picked it out last night.” Everett reached back to the jacket draped over his chair, pulling out a black velvet box and setting it on the table.

He crushed his cigarette into the ashtray.

“She’s so goddamn obedient that the second I take my eyes off her, she’s gone.”

“Someone’ll snatch her up, or she’ll vanish on her own. I’m not letting her marry someone else.”

The guys exchanged looks.

Nobody had a response for that.

Nolan took a long beat before he spoke.

“Everett, you’re overthinking this. You propose, she says yes. Why do you even need us?”

Everett turned the velvet box over in his hand.

“I don’t want a yes she gives me because she doesn’t know how to say no.”

“I want her to actually want to marry me. Not just go along with it because that’s what she does.”

Nolan blinked. “What’s the difference? You still end up married.”

“It’s different”

Everett paused.

“Today she’s mine. Tomorrow her dad says jump, and she’s a Westbrook. She’ll marry whoever she’s told to marry and walk out the door the second someone else calls the shots. I don’t want that yes. Not even if she gave it to me a hundred times.”

His gaze dropped to the small burn mark the ash had left on the table.

He kept seeing her at the top of the stairs before dawn, that smile on her face. Then why don’t you marry me?

He’d frowned. Figured she was acting out.

But that hadn’t been a plea. It had been a shove.

She’d been pushing him away. Farther and farther.

“Everett, do you even know if this is love, or if you’re just scared of losing her?”

Everett stood and pulled on his jacket, fastening the buttons one by one.

His fingers paused at the third button.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But if she runs, I’ll go after her. That’s enough.”

Miles spoke up. “What about the Holloways?”

The room shifted. It was the part nobody wanted to touch. They’d always avoided it. But not

anymore.

Graham leaned forward. “Exactly.”

“The Holloways have basically owned Fairgrove’s business district for three generations. This arranged marriage has been in the works for over six months, and your families’ businesses are completely tangled up at this point. You can’t just call it off.”

“Everett, you do not want the Holloways as enemies.”