Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
EMERSON
M y mother is talking a mile a minute, but I’m not listening to anything she has to say.
He loves me. Not only that, it's a love without conditions. Gideon has gifted me freedom, but I don’t want it.
All I want is him. I can still feel him all over my body.
He’s a part of me now, and I can’t ever let that go.
"Emerson, what is the matter with you?" Mother snaps her fingers in front of my face. "You're always such a dimwitted girl. At least now you're Conner's problem." She mutters the last part under her breath.
"Is that what I am, Mother? A problem?" That’s all I have ever been to her. I don’t understand why she bothered to have me. If my mother has taught me anything, it’s how to not be a shit parent like her.
"Don't start." She attempts to touch the corner of my dress, probably intending to fix it, but I swat her hand away. I don’t want anyone but Gideon touching it. The expression of surprise that takes over her face is comical.
"Don’t start?" I stand up straighter. “Oh, I’m about to.”
"Watch it," Mother warns, but I'm not having it.
"No," I say with defiance.
She lifts her hand, intending to smack me again, but I catch her forearm. I was ready for it this time. I shove her arm back, throwing her away from me in the process. She stumbles back a few steps. Her heels make her wobble, but she manages to stay on her feet.
"You don’t get to touch me ever again.” Now it's my turn to give the warning.
"Who the hell do you think you are, Emerson? Without us you have nothing. You'll marry Conner or sleep on the streets."
"I'm not marrying him." I knew that this morning when I put on the dress.
This dress was always meant for Gideon. There was no way I could wear it for another man.
Even though my decision was already made, I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to stand on my own two feet.
All I knew was that I was going to figure it out.
“You will marry him.” Mother points one of her perfectly manicured fingers at me, but she doesn’t come closer. There is a slight shake to her hand as she realizes I’m not going along with her orders.
“No,” I say again, and each time it comes out with more confidence. She’s lost her power over me because I’m no longer scared of her. If anyone should be scared, it’s her. I have nothing to lose now, and she has nothing to hold over me.
I could give a shit less about my reputation. I would love to tell people who the real Vivian and Malcom Brown are. They aren’t pillars of this community, and my mother is no philanthropist. She pretends to be, but it’s all for show. All of her is.
We stand there staring at each other, but I don’t have time for this. I need to go find Gideon, and I hope he didn’t leave yet. I don’t think he would, but I have to find him and let him know that I love him too.
I shrug, not wasting another moment with her, and head toward the door.
“Emerson!” Mother calls after me, and I pause but don’t turn around. My back is to her, waiting to hear what she has to say. Will she apologize? Tell me I don’t have to marry Conner? Doubtful. I’m not that deluded. “Please, just wait.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard her utter the word "please," so I turn around out of curiosity more than anything. There’s something in her tone that sounds like panic.
“What?” I cross my arms over my chest, waiting.
“This is bigger than you marrying Conner. You have to or we’ll lose everything.” She wrings her hands together in front of her.
“ You’ll lose everything. Didn’t you just tell me I have nothing?” I remind her.
“Listen to me.” Mother rushes toward me, but I take a step back. She halts her approach and holds her hands up like I’m an animal she’s afraid of scaring. “If you don’t do this, we’ll have nothing. We’ll all be on the streets.”
The dramatics with this one.
“You won’t be on the streets.” I have no clue what our family's financial situation is. I have always been kept in the dark about that, but from the way my mother shops, money wasn’t a worry. “Sell your things and start living a normal life.”
Mother's eyes widen like I've grown a second head, and I have to fight not to laugh. She's so appalled by the idea of leading a normal life when that’s all I’ve dreamed of.
"Don't be na?ve." Her anger comes back after seeing that she's not making any headway appealing to my emotions. The real her can only stay hidden for so long when she’s having one of her meltdowns.
"You're the one being na?ve , Mother ." That is the last time I'll call her that. "You tried to sell me off while making me feel trapped. No matter how you want to frame this, you still need my consent.”
"You have no idea what you’re talking about. Arranged marriages happen all the time."
"I don't want to marry Conner!" As soon as the words are out, my hand goes to my throat. I don't think I’ve ever screamed at anyone before, and it was kind of nice. “Stay away from me. All of you. I never want to hear from any of you again.”
This time when she calls after me, I don’t stop. There are people I know who are attending the wedding outside the bridal room. Their eyes are wide with curiosity as I walk out. Any other day I might duck my head and not make eye contact, but not today.
“The wedding is off,” I announce loudly as I pass by. “Conner has a drug problem and can’t keep it in his pants.”
A few people laugh, but I don't give a shit about my reputation. If all these people care about is money and power, then their opinion means nothing to me. I keep walking until I make it to the hotel lobby. I can feel people staring at me, but I ignore them.
Where is Gideon? I don't have a phone, but there’s no need to panic.
If I simply stand here, I know he'll find me.
Everything Gideon has done has been to protect me.
It started that day I walked into his office.
His concern was fully on me, and since then, Gideon has always put me first. No one has ever done that for me before.
"Precious." I spin around, and Gideon is standing there.
There’s no hesitation as I throw myself at him and he wraps me in his open arms. He lifts me off the ground, and I start kissing him anywhere I can reach.
“I love you,” I tell him over and over again. “I don’t want the house. I only want you. I don’t care about anything else.” I thread my fingers together at the base of his neck, my feet dangling from the floor.
“I love you too.” The smile he gives me lights up every part of my body.
There are a few flashes out of the corner of my eye and then I remember I’m in the middle of a busy hotel lobby.
“Whoops,” I whisper. “People are watching.”
“I don’t give a shit,” he tells me, and I can see he means it. In fact, I think he wants everyone to see.
“They’re taking pictures,” I add, but clearly he knows. There’s a man and a woman who have giant cameras and not their phones. They look like professionals.
“Gideon! You bastard!” Conner shouts across the open lobby.
"Fucking hell." Gideon sighs. "Let me deal with this, and then we'll go get married."
He puts me back on my feet as Conner charges toward us. The two people with cameras keep taking pictures. This is going to make Page Six for sure. I only know this because Vivian has dissected it and the gossip on there is like it's the real news in their social world.
"What do you think you"—Conner almost trips over his own feet. He is a freaking mess. His eyes are bloodshot, and his face is red and blotchy. His shirt doesn't even have the buttons fastened correctly—“think you're doing?" he finishes when he steadies himself. "She's mine."
He tries to take a swing at Gideon, who merely side-steps it. Conner goes tumbling to the marble flooring, and I cringe.
"Is there anything in your room we need to collect?" Gideon asks me, and I shake my head.
Gideon is so casual as Conner struggles back to his feet. One of the people with the cameras asks Conner about an orgy, but he ignores them, going for Gideon again.
"Gamer," Gideon sighs like he’s over this.
I stick my foot out to trip him at the same time Gideon hits him in the jaw. Conner crumples to the floor, and Gideon's attention turns back to me, ignoring everything else around us.
"Did you say we were getting married?" I ask him.
"Yes." He swings me up into his arms, carrying me toward the lobby exit. Charlie is waiting for us, standing by the SUV and holding the back door open. He winks at me before Gideon gets inside, keeping me in his lap.
“Straight to the courthouse?” Charlie asks.
“Yes,” Gideon says.
“Wait, isn't there paperwork? A prenup?” I tease.
“Oh, there will be paperwork. A contract that will be unbreakable. One that you sign by saying I do .”
Looks like I got the knight in shining armor after all.