Chapter 4
TESSA POV
"You really won't regret it?" Malcolm's deep, husky voice pulled my attention back to him. He was looking directly into my eyes, his gaze steady and serious. "Have you truly moved on from Soren?"
For a moment I didn't answer. His question shouldn't have surprised me, I had just chosen him in front of everyone, but there was something different about hearing him ask it quietly, without allowing the audience to hear. He wasn't teasing now. He genuinely wanted to know.
"After we get engaged, I will never tolerate my woman thinking about another man, or getting entangled with one," he continued, his fingers resting loosely on the armrest of his wheelchair, his posture relaxed despite the weight in his voice. "And you will be tied down with me for life. Do you want that?"
A lifetime. The word carried more weight than I expected. In my previous life I had thought I understood what it meant to be tied to someone. I had married Soren believing love alone would be enough, had given him my trust, my loyalty, my medicine, my heart. And what had he given me in return? Betrayal. Humiliation. Pain. Death. I pushed the memories away. That life was over. I was no longer the woman who clung to a man who didn't want her.
"Yes, I do," I said firmly.
Something shifted faintly in his expression, as though he'd braced for hesitation and found none. "But you'll also be tied down with me," I said, lifting my chin. "You're never allowed to think of another woman, or cheat on me, or I will do everything to end it."
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
"I will never cheat on you. You can trust me on that." He didn't sound like a man trying to convince me. He sounded like a man stating a fact, and something about that certainty made warmth spread through my chest before I could stop it. I wasn't used to being spoken to like this, not with respect, not with certainty, not as though my loyalty actually mattered.
I turned toward Master Silas. "Master, I'm ready to get engaged to him now."
The moment I said it, I caught Soren's hand curling into a fist at his side, the veins standing out beneath his skin. I knew that look. He had never wanted me, he'd made that painfully clear twice tonight, but he didn't want me to belong to another man either. He wanted me to chase him even after rejecting me, because I wanting him give him something to control me and get benefits.
In his mind, choosing Malcolm was probably nothing more than an attempt to humiliate him, a game I'd eventually abandon to come running back. I didn't care what he thought anymore. I had already died once because I cared too much about him. I wouldn't make that mistake twice.
"Then, Malcolm, bring out the rings for the exchange," Master Silas said.
Malcolm reached into his coat, and when he opened the small box in his hand, the chandelier's light caught on the stones inside, one black, one a deep, impossible purple, rare and striking against the dark velvet. My breath caught. One for the man. One for the woman.
"Did you know you would be engaged tonight?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.
"I only just received these from a friend as a gift," he said. "He told me he'd seen that I would be engaged tonight, and that I might need them. I didn't believe him." A few people laughed softly. I stared at the rings, wondering if this was truly a coincidence, or if fate was simply laughing at me.
"So now, Uncle Malcolm — I never knew you had such powerful friends," Soren cut in, his tone sour, mockery bright in his eyes. "Why haven't you ever introduced me?"
He still believed Malcolm was nothing more than a useless, crippled man, worth nothing beyond the pity people spared him, just because an unknown man, who they know nothing about arrived here two months ago badly injured and was introduced as Soren uncle and was in the same generation as my master despite not be same age.
He had no idea who his uncle truly was. Even I didn't know everything, only what my brother had once told me, that Malcolm was powerful, far more powerful than anyone in this hall could imagine.
Thinking of my brother sent an ache through my chest. I missed my family fiercely at this moment, wondering what they would do if they ever learned what had happened to me in my past life, whether they would grieve, whether they would blame themselves. They were alive in this life, and so was I. That was all that mattered now.
The warmth left Malcolm's eyes. "He is not someone you know," he said coldly.
"I'm sure he's just a con man," Soren pressed. "And I'm sure that diamond is fake."
"Enough, Soren. That doesn't concern you," Master Silas said sharply, and something in his tone finally silenced him, though the fury didn't leave his face.
"You two may exchange your rings," Master Silas said, and Malcolm nodded.
He took the black diamond and reached for my hand, his fingers brushing mine, warm, steady, as he slid the ring onto my finger. My heart beat harder. This was real. I was engaged. Not to Soren. To the man I had never once considered in my first life, and had chosen freely in this one.
"Here. Take this." He held out his hand, and I slipped the purple diamond onto his finger. Neither of us spoke.
"Congratulations," Master Silas said. "You two are now engaged." The hall erupted around us, voices calling congratulations from every direction. I looked down at the ring on my finger. Its beauty wasn't what made it precious, it was what it represented. A new beginning. A life I had chosen for myself.
Malcom brings out a small box and opens it to reveal a simple, natural chain. "Take this. It is our engagement gift, and a family heirloom for our eldest daughters-in-law." I accepted it and bent slightly so he could fasten it at my neck. It was nothing extravagant, yet it settled against my skin heavier than the ring.
"Congratulations. The engagement has been fulfilled, so was my promise to Tessa's parents who entrusted her to me before they left, that she would never be forced to marry, but would be free to choose for herself." The master gaze moved between us.
"Though Malcolm and I are not siblings, we come from the same family and the same generation, despite being older than him by many years. But since he has accepted her, she is in safe hands. He will treat her well."
"I know, Master. Thank you," I said quietly.
More congratulations echoed through the hall, but I could feel Soren's gaze on me without needing to look. He had lost, not because he'd wanted me, but because, for the first time, I had stopped wanting him.
He turned toward the exit. I watched his back for a moment before clearing my throat.
"Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for your kind wishes." The voices quieted, and people turned toward me. Soren stopped, his shoulders tensing, though he didn't turn around. "But there is an important matter I would like to inform everyone about."
This wasn't about him. This was about the future I had never been given in my previous life, the future I had returned to claim.
"I have been accepted to the International Medicine Academy," I said, "the number one medicine school in the world.”