I Agreed To Another Man After He Chose Her In The Collapse Chapter 06

I Agreed To Another Man After He Chose Her In The Collapse Chapter 06

I thought I was ready. But sitting across from Everett, just the two of us, my nerves kicked in anyway.

He must’ve noticed, because he slid a piece of candy across the table.

“Your dad told me you’ve had a sweet tooth since you were a kid.”

“So I always keep some with me.”

Then he turned his pocket inside out to prove it.

It was stuffed with candy, all the kinds I’d loved growing up.

Something about the way he smiled made the tension ease out of me.

Maybe this whole thing wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

That night, Everett sent a car to take me home.

When I saw it pull up, I blinked. Even Nolan didn’t have a private driver, and he was a commander.

It hit me then. My parents had been talking Everett up for years.

I’d never once asked what he actually did.

I told myself I’d ask Mom when I got in. But the second I walked through the door, that plan died.

Mom was sitting on the couch, her face set like stone.

The second she saw me, she forced a smile, trying not to let me notice.

“Mom, what happened?”

“Your dad called.”

After Nolan found out I was gone, he’d been showing up at the house every day, trying to get someone to tell

him where I went.

He pushed Dad so far that Dad actually took a swing at him.

Nolan never hit back. Not once. In the end, it was Vivian who got people to break it up.

Command came down hard. They were talking about filing a formal complaint against Dad.

“He is unbelievable!”

“Who’s unbelievable?”

I spun around. Everett was standing in the doorway, looking back and forth between me and Mom with an

amused grin.

The fact that he’d just heard me trash-talking sent heat straight to my face.

Like I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t.

“No… nothing…”

“I was talking about a movie…”

My voice trailed off. I didn’t realize it yet, but I already cared what he thought of me.

Everett let it go. He stepped closer and held out the bag I’d left in the car.

“Mrs. Hartwell, your daughter would forget her own head if it wasn’t screwed on tight.”

Before I could protest, Everett smoothly added, “But that’s all right. Gives me an excuse to take care of her.”

Just like that, I forgot all about the question I’d meant to ask.

But the next morning, Dad called with news.

It wasn’t Dad who got punished. It was Nolan.

He’d brought Vivian onto the training grounds without authorization.

On top of that, he’d started a confrontation and disrupted order on the compound.

In the end, Dad was the one command came to check on.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Everett had something to do with it.

A thousand miles away, back at the compound.

Vivian was dabbing ointment on Nolan’s bruised jaw, her eyes swollen from crying.

She’d been staying at his place since it all happened.

When people asked, Nolan said he owed her. She’d saved his life once, and he was returning the favor.

But behind closed doors, everyone talked.

They said she had no shame, living under a man’s roof with no ring on her finger.

Between that and what he’d done to me, almost nobody on the compound would give her the time of day.

“Nolan, I….could I have a key to your office?”

Nolan’s expression shifted the second she asked.

“What do you need my office key for?”

That was all it took. Vivian’s eyes welled up.

Her voice cracked with hurt.

“I tried to come see you more than once, and they wouldn’t even let me through the door. People laughed at

me in the hallway.”

“If I had your key, I wouldn’t have to stand there and take it.”

Nolan pulled away from her touch without seeming to realize he’d done it.

It was a long time before he finally shook his head.

“I can’t give out office keys. It’s restricted access. I’m sorry.”

Vivian shot to her feet.

“Wow. So that’s what I am to you.”

“Just some outsider. You think I’d actually do something to hurt you, so you keep me shut out of everything.

Is that it?”

“If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have saved your life!”

“If that’s really how you see me, then what am I even doing here? I’m leaving. Right now.”