They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 04

They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 04

I leaned against the old oak tree.

The March night wasn’t cold anymore, but a chill crept up my spine in waves.

“But being struck from the Registry—that hasn’t happened to anyone in nearly thirty years. Haven must be so upset!”

Ethan reached down and tapped her nose. “You almost ended up married to some stranger and you’re worried about someone else.”

His voice was warm, certain, almost amused. “Haven does what her dad and brother tell her. And when she’s married, she’ll do what I tell her. The Registry doesn’t mean a thing to a woman like her.”

“Did you see her make a scene tonight? She’s more scared of me leaving her than anything. She was calmer than I expected.”

Calla’s voice came out muffled. “I just think she’s so pitiful…”

“Pitiful?” Ethan looked down at her. “All she’s losing is the title of ‘Mrs. York’ in this town. Outside of here, nothing changes.”

The wind carried the smell of smoke and his laughter toward me.

I schooled my face and walked inside.

The moment people in the yard saw me, the noise cut in half.

Ethan still had a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers.

Calla hurried over and grabbed my sleeve.

“Haven! You’re back? I was just about to go find you—”

I pulled my arm back.

She stumbled backward—let out a little yelp—and hit the ground.

Her sparkler rolled away across the dirt.

“Calla!”

Ethan lunged.

He shoved past me in the process. I staggered, caught my heel on a pile of spent firework tubes, and went over backward.

My palm hit the firework residue. The burn shot through me like a shock.

Hunter and Landon rushed over too.

They hovered around Calla like she was something precious.

No one even glanced at me.

Ethan turned. His eyes were blazing.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Calla was out here worried about you. Worried sick. And this is how you come back?”

“Push her down? Is this how you were raised?”

My palm throbbed in waves.

In the moonlight, I could see blisters rising on my skin.

He finally noticed my hand. His voice dropped a little.

“…You okay?”

I didn’t look at him. Pushed myself up off the ground.

Let out a short laugh. “Worried about me? Worried enough to throw a fireworks party out here?”

Ethan’s jaw went tight. “Don’t twist it. Setting off fireworks after the Choosing is tradition in this town, isn’t it?”

Yeah. Tradition.

And what did that have to do with me?

“Move,” I said quietly.

His brows pulled together. “You push someone down and you’re not even going to say sorry?”

I looked up at him. My palm was screaming.

“Sorry?” I said. “Ask her. Ask her if I even touched her.”

Ethan didn’t turn around. But behind him, Calla sniffled—soft, deliberate.

That sound shut him down completely.

“Haven, for both our sakes, you need to apologize. Right now.”

“For both our sakes?” I held his gaze. “Then come with me. Right now. We go back to the city, file the license. No Registry. No Maypole Blessing. None of it. I walk away from all of it. Do you have the guts to do that?”