Chapter 301 I Do

Chapter 301: Chapter 301 I Do

Scott’s POV

"Scott, even if I divorce Sebastian, I will never marry you. Not in this life, not in any other."

Emilia stood in my doorway, eyes rimmed red, chest heaving. She hurled the words at me like stones.

My grin vanished in an instant. My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

"Emilia, slow down." I pulled the towel off my neck and gripped the doorframe. "What are you talking about? I don’t understand a word of this."

"Don’t play innocent with me."

"I’m not playing anything." I stepped closer, lowering my voice, trying to reach her. "Come inside. Tell me what happened. Somebody hurt you?"

She shook her head hard, backing away from me instead.

"I’ve always treated you as a friend, Scott. A real one. Do you understand that?" Her voice cracked. "So tell me. Did you know your mother was behind all of it? Did you know she’s held a grudge against Mila and Titus for thirty years? Did you know what she is to Abigail?"

Each question landed like a blow. My mind scrambled.

"My mother?" I said. "Emilia, I don’t, what does my mother have to do with you and Sebastian?"

"She’s using everything she has to force me to divorce Sebastian, so I’ll come running to you." A bitter laugh tore out of her. "Did you think if she broke us apart, I’d fall into your arms out of gratitude? In your dreams. I would rather die than marry you, Scott Hanson."

The words hit harder than she knew. Even if we could never be lovers, I’d told myself we’d be friends until the end of our days. Now she was looking at me like I was her enemy.

"That has nothing to do with me." I heard my own voice climb, ragged. "I have never once asked my mother to break you and Sebastian up. I swear it on the Moon Goddess. Whatever she’s done, I knew none of it."

But Emilia was already turning, already walking to her car.

Something in me snapped. I chased after her like a madman across the wet drive and caught her by the door.

"Emilia, listen to me—"

"Let go."

"This isn’t me. Do you hear me? It isn’t me." My throat burned. "I would never use you like that. Never."

She wrenched her arm free and shoved me back.

"Then go ask your mother what she’s planning."

She dropped into the driver’s seat. The engine roared to life. With a spray of gravel she was gone, taillights shrinking down the dark street until they winked out entirely.

I stood there in the cold, and felt my heart tear clean down the middle.

My mother. I’d never once imagined she was capable of this. I was so tired of all of it. The scheming, the lies, the endless mess I’d never asked to be part of.

I got in my car and drove to a bar downtown, sank into the darkest corner I could find, and ordered without looking at the menu. Whiskey. Bourbon. Whatever burned. Six glasses lined up in front of me, and I meant to drown in every one.

Somewhere around the fifth drink, I fumbled my phone out of my pocket. My thumb found Lily’s name on its own. She picked up on the second ring.

"Scott? It’s almost midnight, what—"

"There’s a bar on Fremont," I mumbled. "Come."

I hung up before she could answer.

I don’t know how long I sat there before she showed up. When she did, she wove through the crowd toward me, her face going soft and sad the second the neon light caught mine.

"Scott." She slid into the seat across from me. "What happened to you?"

I lifted my head and looked at her.

"Lily. Do you like me?"

The question caught her completely off guard. She looked away, flustered, and reached for something else to say. "Let’s dance, hm? You need to move around, sober up a little."

"Answer the question." I held her eyes. "Do you like me?"

"Is this, does this have something to do with Emilia?"

"I’m asking about you and me. Right now. Just tell me yes or no."

Whatever was holding me together had already come apart. Lily stared at me, lost for a moment, then admitted it plainly. "Yes. I like you. I have for a long time."

"Good." I set down my glass. My head felt strangely clear. "Then marry me."

Lily’s POV

For a second, the pounding music, the clink of glasses, the whole roar of the bar, all of it just vanished.

There was nothing left in the world but that one word hanging in the air between us.

Marry me.

I’d played this moment out in my head a thousand times over the years. A thousand different ways. Never once, in any version, had it looked like this. Scott drunk in a corner booth, his heart wrecked over another woman.

"You’re drunk," I said. It was the only thing that made sense.

"I’m not drunk. I’m sober." His face was serious. "Maybe I can’t promise you love. But I’m not joking about the proposal."

"Don’t. Don’t do this to me." I shot to my feet. "I’m leaving."

He caught my wrist before I could go. "You don’t have to answer tonight. Take your time. Think about it first."

I shook him off and ran. I didn’t stop until I hit the cold night air outside, and even then my heart was slamming so hard I could barely breathe.

What is happening?

I pressed a hand to my chest and tried to think.

Was one of those ridiculous fairy tales actually landing on me? The kind I’d stopped letting myself believe in years ago?

Marry Scott. Wake up next to him. Spend the rest of my life at his side.

The thought was so sweet it hurt.

And that was exactly why I turned around and walked back in.

I found him and stopped in front of his table.

"Why?" I demanded. "Why would you suddenly propose to me?"

"Because of Emilia," he said, not hiding it. "As long as I’m married, she stops getting hurt."

"I don’t understand what that means."

"My mother’s doing everything she can to force Emilia to leave Sebastian, all so she’ll end up with me. But if I’m already married, she gives up. She stops making Emilia’s life hell."

It felt like someone had emptied a bucket of ice water straight over my head. Every warm, foolish thing I’d been feeling drained right out of me.

So that’s all this was. A tool. A shield he could hold up between Emilia and his mother’s schemes.

"Don’t you think that’s a little unfair to me?" My eyes stung, and I laced my fingers together to keep them from shaking. "You’d sacrifice me, for the sake of the woman you actually love."

"That’s why I’m giving you time." His voice went gentle. "You don’t have to say yes. If all I wanted was to be married, I could’ve asked anyone. But I asked you, Lily. Because you’re the one who said you like me."

I don’t remember leaving the bar. Next thing I knew I was sitting on the cold kitchen floor, knees pulled to my chest, watching the dark turn slowly gray through the window.

I thought about it all night. The kind of thinking that goes in circles and never lets you sleep.

By the time the sun came up, I’d made a choice, one that wasn’t fair to me at all.

I knew what kind of marriage it would be. I knew it might be built on nothing. But I also knew there was still a chance, one in a million, maybe, that he could learn to love me. And I would rather cling to that one-in-a-million than stand back and watch him marry some other woman while I had nothing at all. At least this way, I’d have kept the chance for myself.

I picked up my phone. My hands were steady now. I typed two words and hit send before I could talk myself out of it.

[I do.]