Page 8

Aire

F uck consequences. Fuck grandfather. Living as Aelin was not worth it. After brunch, I helped the staff clear the plates and quickly proceeded to my bedroom, where I cried my eyes out. I have never been in a position where everyone around you hated you and thought you were the scum of the earth. Even if I wasn't responsible, being considered so vengeful was distressing.

Nope. I couldn't carry on as Aelin. After I dried my tears, I made a call to her. Like the numerous times I called her number, she didn't respond. She wasn't responding to any of my DMs, either. It was clear to me she was alive. When I was at grandfather's, while I was being molded into a copy of her, she had called him several times, sometimes via video call. So she's alive. She doesn't want to talk to me. But fuck this and fuck her. Fuck grandfather too, for putting me in this position. It wasn't worth the looks of hatred I was receiving.

I can pay off my debts without his help. Plenty of people have done it before, I can do it too. This was the last time I was going to let those two control my life. A weight came off my shoulders as I solidified my decision.

I dried my tears, splashed water on my face, and refreshed my makeup. After a deep breath, I called him.

Kenneth Burgess answered after three rings.

"I don’t want to do this anymore."

"Do what?"

A chill ran down my spine at the sound of his icy voice. He did not scare me. I was a grown woman and he was a feeble old man. I stiffened my back. "I can’t be Aelin. Either Aelin comes back or I divorce him. As for my debts I will pay them on my own"

Silence. Long pregnant silence. He next said. "Fine."

That was not the response I was expecting. I thought he would cuss me out or at least plead with me, or something. "Fine? "

"Tell him you want a divorce, Aire. Do what you want."

"Okay. I’ll do that."

The call ended as soon as I barely finished the sentence.

I took a deep breath and got out of my bedroom in time to see Ivy, Willow, Thalia, and Lynn come out of the study. Thalia was saying something about her child that made both Lynn and Raine laugh. The study was a few feet away from my bedroom and they had their back on me, but I still slinked back into my room. I am going to wait for them to disappear; I thought. However, the mention of my name, or should I say Aelin by Ivy, made me step out of the room out of curiosity.

"Yes, we used to be great friends," Lynn said. "She could be a fun hang, but she's ultimately a selfish bitch. I have no idea why your brother married him."

"We are wondering the same thing. Ivy said, her eyes turning to Thalia. Ivy and Thalia must be aware that Nolan married me for business reasons, but even they thought the overall match was a disadvantage to Nolan.

As they walked further away, snippets of their conversation became harder to hear. I followed them and by the time we entered the living room where Nolan and Damien were playing a video game, the women's subject had gone back to mundane topics. They knew I was behind them. They were doing their best pretending I wasn't there. It shouldn't have bothered me, but it did. I've never felt a need to be liked, but the Hawthornes' dislike of me cut to the bone.

I waited until I was alone with Nolan before finally talking to him, but it was hard. The women took their time saying their goodbyes, and the men were too grumpy to leave without the bottles of brandy they had fished from Nolan's cellar until he relented and gave each a bottle. After the guests were gone, the staff cleaned up the kitchen and the terrace and soon, they too left. Leaving us by ourselves.

Like his siblings, Nolan was pretending I wasn't there as he sat on the couch and played a video game as though I wasn't there. I took a deep breath. If I didn't have the courage to do it now, I would never do it.

Nolan said something about me staring at him like a lost child that made me flip and blurt out, "I-I want a divorce."

He dropped the controller on the couch and turned to face me. This might be the first time today that he'd given me his full attention, and it was unnerving. A draft of wind wafted into the room. Nolan got up and closed the sliding glass door shut. He thrust his hands into his pocket and said, "If this is a ploy to get a larger allowance, then you should have negotiated that during the prenup."

I was about to launch into an argument and try to set the low opinion he had of me right, but what did it matter? He wouldn't believe me, no matter what I said. "It's not a ploy and I don't care about this marriage any more. I want out."

A small smile played on his lips. "My god, you're serious, aren't you?" He marched to the corner of the room where a bar was located and he made himself a drink. "Have you spoken to your grandfather about this?"

"I don't need to."

"I think you do, because I don't think he will believe me if I tell him the divorce was your idea. He was very adamant about this marriage happening."

Whatever grandfather wanted, I didn't care anymore. I wanted out. "I’ll speak to him."

He raised his eyebrows. "He's going to be mad. I doubt a stingy man like him will pay up the forfeit, but you know your grandfather better than me. Unless, of course, you have a nest egg of your own."

"Forfeit?"

"The money either one of us pays to the other if they initiate a divorce in the first two years. Did you even read the contract?"

I had skimmed it. Grandfather was practically watching me over my shoulder as I signed the damn thing and I didn't read it carefully. There had been something about a divorce settlement, but I had read that as money I would get in case of a divorce in two years. I explained this to Nolan. He silently got up and came back a few moments later with the prenup. The original one that I had signed. He opened to the page where it stated the terms of the divorce and my heart sank as I read it.

The astronomical amount was something I could never cough up, even in my dreams. There was no way grandfather would pay such an amount if he learned I chickened out of the marriage. He might add his own 'damages' amount as extra punishment.

"So? Do you want that divorce, honey?" his sarcastic use of the endearment didn't pass me by.

"I don't have that kind of money," I said in a whisper.

Nolan folded the papers. I suspected you didn't. He stared into my eyes, imprisoning my gaze. "What's it going to be? Divorce or no?"

I hated him. Him. My grandfather. Aelin. All of them. I hated myself too for being so stupid. "I think I can live with you for two years."