Chapter 99
The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn Chapter 99
Book 2 Chapter 22
~DAMON~
This should not hurt this much. It should not f*****g hurt like this. Marrying Anya was supposed to solve
everything. It was supposed to make things better. Not worse.
But it was worse. Wasn’t it?
Dante had just stormed out of the house, and I could feel his pain. He was my brother; of course, I
could feel his pain. He was hurting, and so was I. But forpletely different reasons. He was in
despair because of Anya, and I was in pain because of rissa.
I didn’t want to be the reason he was like this. I didn’t want to hurt my brother. And I sure as hell didn’t
want to hurt rissa. But what the hell was the right thing to do? What other choice could I have made
to make things better?
I knew from the start that Dante would have reacted badly to the news, so I asked for enough time to
exin things to him, but Anya did not give me that time. When we were in the room, she didn’t wait for
me, she immediately told him everything. I was not prepared for it at all. Seeing my brother like this was
affecting me horribly.
But the real pain, the main reason my heart was squeezing painfully in my chest, was the beautiful
woman in front of me. She was staring at me as if I’d just broken her heart into a million pieces.
That was never the intention. I was trying to protect her heart, not break it.Original content from N?velDrama.Org.
I swallow. It’s the only movement I could allow my body to make right now. It hurts even to breathe
while staring at her eyes, now filled with unshed tears.
f**k ME. I can’t believe that I’m the one that’s hurting her like this. In the past, I would kill anyone that
made her cry but this time, I was the culprit. I was the asshole making her cry.
Anya was not supposed to break the news like this. I told her to give me time. I told her that I didn’t
want to announce it today. Why did she have to do this? I knew it had to happen eventually, but I wasn’t
ready to break the news to rissa. At least, not like this.
I wanted to ease her into it. I wanted to make sure that she was ready to hear this announcement.
Anya had beaten me to it, and now I had to pick up the broken pieces. I had to pick up the pieces of
rissa’s broken heart and somehow find a way to put them back together, to make it whole again. But
I knew she wouldn’t let me, not with the way she was looking at me in disbelief. She never expected
this from me; I knew that much.
She’s waiting for me to give her an answer. She’s waiting for me to confirm what Anya said is true. But I
can’t seem to form the words in my mouth. I’m suddenly at a loss for words. I don’t want her to hate
me. I don’t want her to be disappointed in me. Even though everything Anya said was true, I didn’t want
to confirm it.
I can feel all eyes on us. My entire family is standing around us. My parents and grandfather had just
joined and were catching up on what was happening. My whole family was watching us, everyone
except Dante.
I still had no clue how to break the news to my parents. Why did Anya do this? Why did she make the
announcement without asking me first?
“Tell me,” rissa whispers; this time, her voice breaks, tugging at my heart. It took all of my self-
control not to reach forward and gently cup her face in my hands.
“Damon.” She says again in that tone that does weird, painful things to my body. “Tell me the truth. Did
you agree to marry Anya?”
My jaw clenches, and I try to find the words. It was one word, just yes, that’s all I had to say, but the
moment I did, I knew that everything would change between us. And a part of me, a very sick part of
me, didn’t want it to change.
I needed things to stay the same. I couldn’t handle the change. It had to remain the same. It had to.
“rissa.” My mother tries to calm her. “Let’s take this into the family room. We can all talk about it
calmly in there.”
Yes. Calmly. That’s what we needed to do. But I also knew that this discussion could never be a calm
one.
“No.” rissa hissed, and it was the first time she’s used that tone on our mother. On my mother. Even
though rissa was adopted, I don’t think she fully epted my parents as hers. And I know that the
main reason is partly because of me. I’ve known it for a while, but I’ve been lying to myself. Lying to
myself because I wanted to protect her from herself and, most importantly, from me. Those lies were
about to cost me everything. I shouldn’t have ran from it. I should have found a way to deal with
everything before it reached this point.
“I want to talk about it now.” She adds as she res at me. “I want Damon to tell me the truth. He isn’t
saying anything and that could only mean one thing.”
“He doesn’t owe you any exnations.” Anya snaps. “It’s his life. He doesn’t need your consent to
decide who he wants to marry. As his sister, you should congratte him and be happy for him. What
are you so upset about, anyway? Can’t you see that marrying me is what he actually wants? I can
make him happy; I would think that would, in return, make you happy. You should want the best for your
brother and I don’t see a better option for him than I am.”
Sister. Why did that one word make me feel sick to my stomach? I didn’t see her as my sister. I could
never see her like that.
My eyes move from rissa to re at Anya. This was her mess. She’d told them at the wrong time.
She doesn’t get to tell rissa how to feel at a time like this. She sees my anger and quietly moves
back without adding to her words. She knows that I’m angry and she knows why.
“rissa—” that’s all I can say. That’s all my mouth is letting me say—her name. I still can’t say that
one word that she’s waiting for me to say.
My heart squeezes some more when I see the tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. I did that. I was
causing her to cry when it was thest f*****g thing I ever wanted to do.
“I can’t believe you would do this to me.” She says as she continues to look straight into my eyes. She
isn’t backing down. She’s showing me exactly what I’m doing to her by agreeing to marry Anya.
“You were not supposed to find out this way.” I finally say. “I didn’t want you to find out like this. I know it
doesn’t make it better, but you were never supposed to find out this way.”
She bit her bottom lip and scrunched her nose as the love in her eyes slowly turned into something I’d
never seen before. Hatred. Does she hate me? I cannot live with myself if rissa ever decided to hate
me. My heart wouldn’t be able to take it. I would drop to the ground and beg her to forgive me if I had to
but seeing her hate me wasn’t something I could ever easily ept.
There’s so much more that I want to tell her. So much more, but I don’t know how to say it. I didn’t
know what to say to make her understand that this was the right thing to do. She would disagree with
me.
I knew that she would. But why does the right thing hurt so f*****g much? Shouldn’t it be easier? Why
does it feel like someone is tearing my heart straight out of my chest?
rissa doesn’t try to say anything in response to my words. She looks tired and still in shock. She
seems like someone who’d lost the most important thing in their life.
I watch as she turns and walks away from me. I felt like I was letting her walk out of my life. I didn’t
want to let her go. I didn’t want things to get bad between us.
My hands tightened into fists at my sides. It was taking all of my self-control not to grab her and bring
her back to me. It was taking all of my self-control not to pick her up and take her away from this ce
—just me and her.
“What’s the meaning of all of this?” My father demands. “Have you truly decided that you’re going to
marry Anya?”
Now that Dante and rissa knew of my ns to marry Anya, it was time to have the discussion with
my parents. Even they are surprised by this news, and I’m positive they are also unhappy with my
decision. I was expecting all of this. I should have been prepared for the pain as well. I should be
stronger than this. I knew why I had to do it. I knew that this wedding was important. I had to suck up
the pain and bury it deep inside me.
“Son?” He asks.
I can’t answer him. I’m still staring at the door, where rissa just walked through. I want to run after
her. I want to exin. I want to make it better.
“He has,” Anya answers for me. “Damon is the man I want to marry, and while I’m devastated that I
must let go of Dante, I know I’m making the right decision. Damon is the right choice.”
My parents look at each other. I don’t think anyone in this room is happy with my decision. It shows in
their faces. It’s not just my parents. My siblings are also not happy.
“Shouldn’t we discuss this more before we talk about marriage?” My mother asks. “It’s a lifetime
commitment.”
“You were much more supportive when you wanted Atticus to marry Autumn.” Anya reminds them.
“Can’t you be supportive of Damon as well?”
My father adjusts the watch on his hand as he tries to figure out the best way to deal with this entire
situation.
“Are you sure this is what you want, son?” My mother asks me gently. “Don’t rush into anything you’re
notfortable with. Everyone is here to guide you both along the way. If you’re unsure, this is your
chance, to be honest with us.”
Anya looked at me with a panicked look on her face, and I knew that I couldn’t say no. Not with the way
she was looking at me. I’d already agreed to marry her; she left Dante for me, chose me, and I couldn’t
disappoint her.
But rissa. . . How did I fix things with her? How did I make it better?
“Damon?” My mother calls my name. “Do you want to marry Anya? Do you want us to start nning a
wedding?”
I had to give my mother an answer. The longer I took to say the one word everyone was waiting to
hear, the more they would think that this entire thing wasn’t my decision, to begin with. I couldn’t make
them think that I didn’t want to marry Anya. If they did, it would cause plenty of problems for us. For
rissa.
You have to do it, Damon. No matter how much it hurts you. This is something that you can’t say no to.
I can’t recognize my own voice as I answer, “yes. I want to marry her. I want to marry Anya.”