Page 126 of The Confidant
One week before I became a handmaiden of the Lord and a wife to Xander.
There were only a few days until I would perform the secret ceremony that would put me on the path to giving birth to the Chosen One.
41
SCARLETT
“I’ll see you on Sunday,”Xander said when he dropped me back at the school around nine p.m. “Thanks for coming to dinner.”
“Thanks,” I said, bending over to wave before I shut the passenger door. “Have a good night.”
I waited on the sidewalk for him to drive away before heading inside, finally letting my shoulders droop after pretending for the past two hours like my life wasn’t completely over.
I pulled out my phone to see if I’d missed any messages while I’d been out and saw that Ava had texted me.
We’re just about to take off. I hope you have a better week this next week. Remember, spring break is supposed to be fun. I’ll see you next Sunday!
Ava was flying on the Hastings’s private jet, so I didn’t know if she’d have any sort of cell reception. But I texted her,Thanks. Have a fabulous week,before slipping my phone back into my bag.
I had a feeling my friends would be having a much different—and much more normal—
spring break than I would.
The Hastings family had jetted off to Guatemala to work at an orphanage they sponsor—Mack and Ava joining them for the fun. Elyse had slipped away with her mom for an adventure in London where they would be seeing all the sights and catching a few plays. Asher was headed back to his aunt and uncle’s house for a week of fun with his twin cousins. And even though Hunter had planned to hang out with me tonight and ride the train together back to Manhattan tomorrow, he would be heading down to Florida on Sunday morning for a few days on the beach with his parents.
I hadn’t heard of Addison and Evan having any plans to leave town—they never visited their family, for some reason—so I assumed they’d be hanging out at the school while everyone was away.
But even just staying at the school for a week sounded like heaven compared to what I’d be doing: Getting married and somehow getting pregnant.
I pushed the thoughts away and headed to the dorms, hoping that if I stopped thinking about everything all my problems would magically go away. When I got to the common room, Hunter was sitting on one of the leather couches, looking like he’d just been waiting for me the whole time.
When he noticed me, he sat up straighter and turned off the TV. “How was dinner?”
Terrible.
“It was fine,” I lied. Then to get the conversation off of me, I asked, “Did you eat anything good?”
“They had pizza in the great hall so I had a couple of slices.”
“Cool.”
We looked at each other awkwardly, and I knew he wanted me to say more about my dinner with Xander. But when I didn’t say anything about it, he asked, “Anything exciting happen at your dinner?”
“Not really.” I shrugged.
“Anything you need to tell me?”
I’m being forced to marry Xander next week.
“Not really,” I said again.
“You sure? Because it seems like you’ve had a lot on your mind lately,” he said, obviously trying another route to get me to talk about the things I wasn’t allowed to talk about.
“Yes. I have had some things on my mind.”
“But you don’t want to talk about these things with me?”
“I can’t,” I said, hoping it would get him to stop pressing for information I couldn’t give.
