24. Emmett
Emmett
“Sir, is everything okay?” Ty questions seriously—something he never is—when I open the double doors in a fury.
Kai is also looking at me with slight concern. “Sir?”
“My wife wants to punish me,” I grumble, my body taut with pressure and the once-in-a-lifetime pleasure I just experienced.
The twins freeze like statues, staring at me before they glance at each other.
“Sir?” Kai questions.
“I said, my wife wants to tear me apart, shatter all my bones, and make me experience the worst pain imaginable!”
The twins blink at me slowly, but I blow a breath and move past them.
They quickly follow me, but they don’t ask nor do I volunteer any information because my mind is emersed in my wife.
That was… I don’t even have the words for it.
Everything I’ve ever thought, imagined… it paled in comparison to the real thing.
Until all hell broke loose.
Did my wife have a personality change?
How can someone be so selfish, throw caution to the wind, and be indifferent?
She didn’t even care about my recent heart surgery and how I haven’t even fully recovered, or the life-threatening danger just to get back to her.
Is she punishing me or did she get a personality transplant?
I stop mid-step and turn to face the twins.
“If you find me dead one morning, make sure my wife is thrown in prison for the rest of her life!” I seethe. “And any man that ever tries to get to her, decapitate their heads and deliver them to her as a gift!”
Kai and Ty quickly take their orders, not daring to comment on the strangeness of my thoughts, so we resume walking, but I suddenly hear them whisper behind me.
“Is a brain fog a symptom of the young master’s condition?” Ty whispers to his brother.
“What do you mean?” Kai whispers back.
“Or has he gone insane?”
“Shut up!”
“I’m concerned! Didn’t you see how the young master lost his mind just now? Should we call the doctor?” Ty whispers heatedly.
“I told you years ago that the young master always loses his head when the young miss is involved,” Kai whispers back, gossiping like market women with nothing better to do. “He becomes something else entirely.”
I pause in the hallway and the twins rush to stop as well. I turn around to face them.
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you,” I ask softly, which makes them both stand up straight at attention.
“We… I mean, I…” Ty stutters, looking guilty as hell. “Should we get a doctor?”
“To check if I have brain fog or if I’m just insane?” I ask, and they both glance at each other.
“I’m afraid the young master heard our entire conversation,” Ty whispers to his brother, who nudges him before he moves to walk ahead of me.
Ty jumps and looks back at me. When I keep looking at him, he clears his throat and speaks seriously.
“In the past two days, the young miss didn’t leave the Hughes residence, nor did she eat,” Ty reports. “I believe she developed a hemiplegic migraine, like the one from three years ago, seeing as how overwhelmed and stressed she has been these couple of weeks.”
My anger dissipates almost immediately at the report, so I resume walking. I think back to how when I arrived, I saw her furrowed brow contorted in pain.
I’m not shocked at Ty’s detailed report. He’s been my wife’s shadow for years. It’s part of his duties to know about her health and when things go wrong like the attacks on her life or her strange sudden interest in computer programming.
“Have my guy make her ginger chicken soup.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You know what, never mind. I’ll do it myself.”
“But, sir, you’re injured,” Kai cuts in. “We need to check so many things…”
I hold my hand up to stop him and head to the private kitchen in my wing. Thanks to Ty’s quick thinking, it’s fully stocked and ready, so I prepare my wife’s soup.
After an hour and a half, it’s ready. I want to go back and feed her, but I don’t want to restart that crap conversation, so I send Ty instead.
“Should we call for the doctor for her?” Ty questions, clearly still worried for his young miss.
“Get her doctor here. In the meantime, get my wife a drip as well as her medical kit from the penthouse. I’ll see what else she needs when I get back.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And for you, sir?” Kai asks, looking at me hesitantly. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I sigh, feeling the blood seeping into my shirt. “Kai, clear out the south, east, and west wings of the residence and lock them down. No one is allowed in or out for the next forty-eight hours. Tell Rip to move Grandfather this side.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where are my wife’s mother and wretched sister?”
“Under watch at the guesthouse like you said. Theodore is in the dungeon,” Kai says.
“Good, keep them where they are. Where’s Scarlet?”
“She went back to the city, sir,” Ty answers.
“Send her team to her now.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Also, get Nico and his team on standby from this moment forward around the north and south lawns, but leave the rest clear. Then get the equipment brought up from the cellar.”
Kai looks at me seriously.
“Sir, is the time now?”
“After what happened tonight, I expect the retaliation to be swift and brutal…” I smile, thinking of the spectacular show about to happen. “Let’s be courteous hosts and welcome them in with the respect they deserve.”
But first, I need to talk to Grandfather.
“Should we send the young madam back to the estate in Westbrook Blues?” Kai questions.
Ty suddenly looks at him with a frown.
“Young Madam?”
Kai returns the glare. “They are married now. She’s now the queen of the Family.”
“Ah, yes,” Ty says as if now realizing it. “But she’s not going to like that one.”
“So what do we call her?” Kai questions seriously.
They continue like this right in front of me, not at all caring that there’s a bloody war about to happen.
“You know, I think she appreciates being asked first,” Ty says seriously, tapping his chin. “It’s best to ask her later.”
“Won’t she hate every suggestion we give?”
“It could be.”
“Then what do we do?”
“Young madam is more appropriate then,” Ty finally concedes.
The twins look at each and nod affirmatively before looking back at me and falling silent.
“Are you two done?”
They glance at each other then quickly stand at attention. “Yes, sir,” they say unanimously.
“If all fails, call her by her real name! Mrs. fucking Easton!”
Being seasoned and well-versed with my character and temperament, both of them know better than to speak, so they quickly leave, to complete their orders.
I swiftly go to the study where the old man is waiting. My phone buzzes with a text.
George: You clearly lost your fucking mind if this news is true.
What?
George: Unless your infamous, sinister persona has a clone, you got married to HER tonight, didn’t you?
Yes, and?
A new text comes from Noah. I realize this is a group chat that was started God only knows when.
Noah: YOU GOT MARRIED?????
King: Oh look! The monster is human after all.
Noah: Don’t tell me you went and married that princess from somewhere? Or is it Shortcake from Hazzy Strip Club?
George: It would’ve been a thousand lifetimes better if he had married a stripper. Her life is nowhere as precious as Ivy’s!!
Noah: YOU LIE! HE MARRIED IVY?
King: Noah, stop shouting. Em, you decided to accelerate your death? Good for you.
George: Spider’s going to skin him alive.
Noah: Haha! I’ll enjoy that show! But wait, why didn’t you invite us?
King: I never invited you to my wedding…
Noah: That’s because you’re a defective human being with no hope of recovery. Big Em is simply emotionally challenged. Let’s lower our expectations appropriately, gentlemen.
George: Can you two focus? If the plan had gone on, Ivy would still be safe. What now?
King: That plan was crap from the get-go. It was a lie Em fed himself! There’s no way on this planet he was going to let another man marry Ivy, even if it were a sham.
Noah: Ah, this brings back very fond memories of when Em almost put King in a body bag for kissing Ivy that year. Didn’t he give you a concussion, fractured ribs, and a punctured lung?
King: Fuck off, Noah.
Noah: Man, I made money off of Em back in the day! We should open the ring again!
Noah: But seriously, Em has always been a goner for Ivy! He fell first and he fell harder!
George: What are you talking about now?
Noah: BOOKTOK!!! SMUT TROPES?
George: Can someone break this idiot’s code?
Noah: Isn’t it clear? My fiancée always says shit like that in the middle of night, giggling and kicking away the damn duvet while reading on her Kindle.
King: It’s smut lingo. Who doesn’t know this?
George: Anyway… how is this going to play out?
Stay out of my wife and I’s business and fuck off!
Noah: Your wife? Did this iceberg just say “MY WIFE”?!
King: Yes… go see an optician. Em, let us know where your funeral will be held.
Rolling my eyes once more, I shove my phone back into my pocket, not interested in reading this crap but for some reason, warmth blooms in my chest.
I’m married to my Angel, the troublemaker who has not always known what she wants in her life but is stubborn with her heart, even to the point of suffering.
IVY IS NOW MY WIFE!
Before God.
Before the law.
Before my family.
Before her mother and her wretched daughter and the husband I’ll dispose of later.
And before every asshole that is against our union… we are married .
The rings on our fingers are evidence of that… I’ll never remove mine.
The blessing and prayer from the priest were another confirmation, just as my mother said it should be.
Somehow, this is all that registers in my mind, my soul, and every stitch of fabric that makes up my consciousness as I get to the study.
Ripley is waiting for me. When he sees me, he bows his head slightly, and says, “Congratulations, Young Master. She’s lovely.”
I can tell he genuinely means it. Rip watched me grow up.
“She was going to marry my cousin,” I say, watching him.
“As long as you still have breath in your lungs, that was never going to happen,” Rip says without hesitation.
“You knew I was coming back?”