They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 09

They Caught Her Flower for Someone Else, So I Kept the Groom Fate Gave Me Chapter 09

I grabbed the picture frame and hurried out the door—and nearly collided with someone coming in.

The glass of water in his hand sloshed over the rim. He reached out instinctively and pulled me into his chest.

My face pressed against his shirt. I could feel his heartbeat.

He looked down at me, his voice dropping half a notch. “You okay?”

The burn scar on my palm brushed against his fabric—a dull, lingering sting.

“I’m fine.”

He let go and handed me what was left in the cup. “Drink some water. Dinner won’t be ready for a while.”

I didn’t take it. “You’re not Parker Payne, are you?”

His hand paused in midair.

Then he set the cup on the table beside us and smiled.

Like someone who’d just been caught at something he’d been waiting to get caught for.

“No. I’m not.”

My eyes went wide. “Then who are you—”

“Parker’s my brother. After our parents divorced, my mom took me and moved to the city. Changed our last name. I go by Dane now.”

—

“My brother stayed here with our dad. He never talked about the divorce—so people in town only knew my father had one son.”

“I came back to handle my brother’s affairs. And to check if the orchard land my mom got in the divorce was worth anything.”

“People here mistook me for Parker. I never corrected them. It’s a long story.”

He leaned against the doorframe. “That day at the Maypole Choosing—I was just there out of curiosity.”

“Then I saw you on the platform. Your fiancé never even looked your way.”

“Three ribbons dropped at once. He went straight for the Tate girl.”

He paused. “I stood there watching your ribbon fall. And I thought—what if I caught it instead? You Reject the Match, you get struck from the Registry.”

“But if you don’t Reject it, you end up married to me—this ‘pariah bachelor who buried three wives.’ Either way, you lose.”

“Between the two, you’d definitely choose to Reject.”

He held my gaze, steady and calm. “I was just afraid that if someone with better prospects caught your ribbon… you might actually marry him.”

My chest tightened.

I hadn’t chosen Parker Payne out of pure spite.

I didn’t want to get struck from the Registry.

—

Because I needed to inherit the orchard land my mother had left me.

It had been her wedding gift from her own family.

Even though my father had found every excuse to take over managing it, the land was still in her name.

And there was town tradition—everyone on the Registry was entitled to a plot of orchard land.

The harvest every spring brought in good money.

My brother had been managing it for years. But as long as I was on the Registry, the claim was still mine. If I got struck off, all of it would become someone else’s.

I figured—since the Maypole Goddess had chosen this match, it couldn’t be all bad.

And Parker had no siblings to share the inheritance with. If I married him, his family’s orchard land would be mine too.

Even if we divorced in the end, I’d finally be free of that house—the one where no one had ever really seen me.

And Ethan would know—I wasn’t his to fall back on.

I never expected that the man I married wasn’t Parker Payne at all.

Which meant I’d dodged the curse entirely.

The Maypole Goddess, it turned out, had been looking out for me all along.

“So… what happens now?”

—

“I’ll go through the rest of the Maypole Choosing ceremony with you,” he said. “After that, you’re free. If you want to go back to the city and file a license with your fiancé, I won’t stop you. I’ll give you an out. The choice is yours.”

“What do you want me to choose?” I asked.