Chapter 20
twenty
I think I could vomit. I’m faced with the threat of death or marriage to a stranger.
Pick one, Scout.
It’s not like it’s an honest choice.
In good news, from the little I know about Apollo, he seems fine. Strong. Polite. Athletic and enjoys soccer, too. Handsome. Muscular. Good family. With a massive, pierced dick.
And he oddly got me off with just his fingers and tongue. Something that has never happened to me before.
Then the visit with his family… I didn’t expect that part. The noise. The chaos. The way they pulled me in like I’d always been there. Even Nico didn’t make it weird after what happened. It felt…easy. Warm. Like I belonged.
They even started calling me Scoutie and gave me Stallion-themed socks.
The problem is? Apollo wants Karina. That’s not a steady income. And it’s also here in Northview. If he does something else, like run a Griffin Motors franchise? That’s really not my first pick for my husband’s career, either.
As long as he doesn’t try to stop me from moving away for medical school, we should get along. Maybe we’ll be one of those couples that goes out to dinner and smiles at each other briefly while studying our phones. That’s peaceful. Quiet. And wouldn’t be too much work for me.
The more of his family members I was introduced to, the more my stomach knotted, thinking about all his ties to this town. Would he ever be willing to leave Northview? Even for a few years?
Long distance would have to work for us if he won’t move. There’s no such thing as a divorce in this society. For the years I’m doing my studies and residency, he’ll have to manage by himself if he insists on staying.
I’m a loner. Reading, studying, thinking… I appreciate my solitude for most activities. With me away at school, I would be fine being alone and way too busy to worry about a relationship anyway.
If he ends up fucking someone else while I’m away, though…
I shake my head. I won’t mind. I won’t.
I won’t?
“Well, you are stunning.” Evie bounces in front of me, adjusting my fingertip lace veil. Her flaming platinum hair is freshly shaved on one side of her head. Fluffed into a smooth mane on the other.
My dress, satin and simple, puddles at my feet. And I’m even wearing heels.
Behind Evie, Lan looks weird. He’s pacing and muttering to himself. His face is red like he just got done with a workout. Maybe he did.
“I feel like you used too much makeup. My skin itches.” I glance at the mirror on the wall. “And I hate it.”
Evie just smiles sweetly, a glistening tear in her eye. “Thanks!”
Mom’s fragile grin falters. “You’re beautiful.” She grabs my arm and squeezes. “I— I love you, my girl.” Her voice gets choked, which makes my chest ache. Snagging my younger brother’s arm, she nods at the intricately carved double doors leading into the nave. “Let’s go.”
Bo leads her inside, a shimmer of the stained glass raining down upon them.
“You’re marrying Apollo fucking Griffin, Scout,” Lan busts out, shifting from foot to foot and running his hands through his hair. It was tied back in a low ponytail, but that’s come loose now. He won’t look directly at me.
“Yeah, I know. You hate that?”
“Yes. He’s Delta’s president. And probably has some disease you won’t get rid of.”
He shoves a finger into Dad’s chest, who hasn’t let go of me since we walked into the limestone narthex of the cathedral.
“She’s marrying into a mafia family, you know that, right, Dad?”
Oh! Now he’s Dad.
“He’s not mafia,” I grit out. Maybe if he were, I’d get Johns Hopkins more assuredly. That would be quite convenient.
Dad only squeezes my hand and tugs me closer to his side.
Landon is sweating. Like, profusely.
“Do you need another shower?” I ask him.
Evie gives him a casual glance, a tiny smile curling her ruby-stained lips. “Come on, stud. Let’s go out there and show them how a real couple walks down the aisle. It’ll be good preparation for us.”
As if he’s seen a ghost, Landon pales from his red flush. He turns to Dad and opens his mouth, but no words come out. Evie yanks him forward through the cathedral doors as they open.
“What was that about?” I mutter, knowing Dad won’t say anything.
It’s not that my dad is uncaring. He just knows when to speak and when not to.
Having him next to me is a bigger anchor than I realized. My world seems to crumble around me, the floor tilting. Vision blurry. Dad holds me up. Will he still when I’m a married woman?
“I don’t even know where I’m living… We haven’t discussed it. What am I doing here?”
I just wanted to pretend this wasn’t actually going to happen. Like if I ignored it, it would all go away. It’s the least prepared I’ve been in my life.
Dad clutches me tight, my dress almost making me stumble. It’s nothing fancy. And was quickly tailored. Unsentimental. Something I’ll toss into the back of the closet once this is done.
But the fierce stare in my dad’s blue eyes makes me want to shed the costume like a skin I don’t fit in. I feel every bit of the little girl I was just a few years ago when I gaze up at him.
Tears line his lower lids.
“I’ll take you away from here. We’ll go somewhere. Do you hear me?”
“What about Mom? Bo? Landon?” I choke out as terror overtakes me. This is more frightening than anything I’ve faced before. I’ve always thought of myself as strong, but this? There’s zero preparation for something like marrying a stranger.
“Your mom’s too afraid after”—Dad’s neck bulges as he swallows—“they killed my brother. And they’ll send people for everyone.”
That’s new. I should’ve figured out that Landon’s father, my uncle, didn’t just die.
It clicks into place. My parents are alums. The Cardells.
The Josephs. The Dawsons... As us kids got older, our parents received urgent letters, even visits from the board at NU, pressuring everyone to send their children here.
What if my parents were threatened? What if they have had to protect us more than we realize?
I press a palm to my dad’s heated cheek. “It’s okay. I’ll be fine. He’s nice and respectful.”
“I want to save you. I want to protect you, but it feels like this is the only way…” I feel his pain inside of me. We knew this day would most likely come.
“I know, Dad. But you can’t. I need to save you all by going through with it.”
He pulls my head into his chest and just holds me until the music strikes up.
“If he does anything to you…you tell me. And I’ll take care of it. Xavier. Levi. Me. We’ll make it all disappear. Understand?”
I nod. “I understand.” Sighing, I wipe my eyes. “Let’s go. Just…get it over with.”
He nods and threads my arm around his giant bicep.
The doors fling open, and I gasp at the crowd that we’d hastily gathered for the ceremony.
Typically, the rituals involve members in robes and chanting by the elders. Something strange always happens at the altar, or so I’ve heard. But since the POT wanted a spectacle, they allowed us a version that looks like a wedding. Something palatable. Something pretty.
Something fake.
Except the license waiting at the end is very real.
Our family and close friends fill one side of the room. Apollo’s massive family crowds the other, shoulders brushing, heads turning as I pass. Gasps and tears in eyes. Faces I recognize. Faces I don’t. All of them watching.
It was kind of them to come. Especially on such short notice.
My steps slow as I reach the middle of the aisle, the weight of it pressing in. The sound dulls—voices, movement, everything swallowed by the pounding of my heart.
I search for him. Like I’m looking for an anchor. Someone to steady the ground beneath my feet.
A shoulder blocks my view. Then a taller guest shifts. A flicker of a black tux. Gone again. My breath catches, snagging in my chest as I lean slightly, trying to see past them.
Where is he—
And then, I find him.
Apollo doesn’t just take my breath. He steals it and doesn’t give it back.
Not because of how he looks, which is utterly stunning in his crisp tuxedo that was hewn out of stone for his athletic figure.
Not the slicked back hair that’s been freshly cut and shaved jaw. Tattoos peeking out from his collar.
It’s the way he’s looking at me. Like I just walked out of a dream he didn’t think he deserved. As if me, Scout Lee Turner, is enough. Not my brains or my body.
Just me.
And that expression…
That’s what holds me there. Locks me in place.
If I had to survive the rest of my life on a single moment—
It would be this one.
Somehow, I end up at the top of the stairs with my childhood friend, Amelia Joseph, holding my bouquet of white lilies and colorful tulips. It’s the only time I break eye contact with the large man in front of me.
He swallows hard, then takes my hands in his. They’re sweaty. But he doesn’t seem nervous. Just radiating heat.
We go through a bunch of speeches by the elders about pairings. Nothing about love, though. Or commitment. Because, let’s face it, this is about continuing their society, not anything else.
Instead of a ring, I’m given a weird silver bracelet with a counter on it. Though, Apollo follows it up with a gold band on my finger. I shake when I slide his onto his finger and notice his matching bracelet.
“And now? The vows…”
I’m startled when one of the elders rings a bell, indicating I need to kneel before Apollo.
With Amelia’s help, I get to my knees while she sweeps my dress to the side.
“Scout Lee Turner, you may proceed.”
I swallow, my legs shaking beneath me. “I pledge fealty to fidelity, a covenant to constancy, and an oath to obedience.” The words taste like iron, but I repeat what’s been engrained in us since first year. Ones I went over three times last night so I wouldn’t mess up.
“Apollo Christos Griffin. Your vow.”
Apollo squints as he beholds me, so small beneath him. He looks uncomfortable. Even as he replies, “I appoint you as my vassal.”
Per tradition, I bow my head and say the final line, “Surrendering all my veneration to my Viscount.”
This is typically the part where weird ritual stuff happens. But I’m not exactly sure they’ll make us do things in front of this audience. With the press lining the back of the nave.
I can’t even think about the next step because, suddenly, Apollo is kneeling with me and taking my hands. Louder than normal, he states, “And I surrender my heart to you, my Viscountess.”
What in the actual fuck?
Was he given instructions to deviate from the script by the president? The POT?
And, Caliphylla, help me, he looks sincere about what he’s saying. Who knew Apollo was such a great actor?
My eyes narrow as fury ripples through my blood. With a glance, I spot President Damon and her ilk. The men she always keeps with her. Some from the POT committee. Hell, even Ayan’s father is here.
They all look just as stunned as me. The air is vacuumed into nothing in the large cathedral. No one breathes.
Before I can spit out the question of what game he’s trying to play, Apollo helps me stand. He places my hand in his, though I try to weasel it out. The squeeze he grips me with is firm and unyielding.
I can’t even hear the last part of the ceremony due to the pounding of my pulse in my ears. All I know is that my new husband just tried to make our wedding look like a love commitment.
And now? I hate him.
We’re not alone for one moment for me to ask him what that was. Nope. We have a handler from the university leading us to the steps of the cathedral for late winter pictures with the press.
President Damon takes the lead and says a bunch of bullshit about this being the new era for marriages at Northview University. “Our flagship couple,” or something stupid.
“Give her a kiss!”
“Let’s see the happy couple!”
Apollo approaches the stand and smiles broadly. “My wife and I are thrilled to be the first couple to have our new ceremony in the cathedral with our honored guests. Mrs. Griffin? They want us to kiss.”
I look around for who he’s talking to, then petrify on the spot when I realize he means me.
It’s probably the world’s most awkward kiss.
Certainly not like that first one at the Beta party.
I’m frozen. Lips tight. Despite Apollo’s hands, gentle and firm, against my lower back.
He crooks a finger and taps my chin up with a shy glance into my eyes once he’s done.
His dark eyebrow curls as if asking me a question. I shake my head no.
When he faces the cameras again, he tugs me into his side. Like he’s showing me off. Or hiding me. I’m not sure which.
“But did they choose each other?”
“Our tribunal uses several methods to ensure the perfect pairings are made.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?” Elle Joseph’s voice pierces the crowd as she wields her microphone toward President Damon like a weapon.
“A combination of behavioral, psychological, and historical examinations, but most of those are guarded secrets. For now.” She smiles like she’s selling something.
The other members of the press take notes eagerly with oohs and aahs.
“Maybe someday we’ll release the battery of tests to the public and they can find their perfect match, too. ”
Elle looks skeptical and opens her mouth to ask another question, but she’s cut off when the president continues.
“And the Griffins are wearing our new government-approved wellness bracelets. Ones that monitor their sleep, moods, appetites, everything…” And here’s where I almost faint. “And…ovulation. So expect a pregnancy announcement soon!”
Apollo takes a deep breath, and my knees give out.
He grips me under my arms so I don’t collapse. I think I’m blinking. My vision goes white.
“You okay?” he whispers, like he actually cares. “I got you. Hang on to me.”
As if he’s talking straight to my subconscious, it’s all I can do. I cling to the man beside me, hoping that I don’t fall. Hoping I don’t fall in love. Hoping I can escape.
With my dignity, but mainly, my life.