Chapter 28

The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn Chapter 28 ~ATTICUS~

Out of all the things I was expecting Autumn to say to me, this was the last thing I expected to hear. She was upset with me this entire time because she thought I was leaving her tonight to see Anya?

What did I say for her to jump to that conclusion? Did Autumn already not trust me?

The unmistakable distress on her face stunned me. I never thought that being around Anya would affect her this much. We weren’t in love with each other; we barely knew each other. She’s never shown me before that she didn’t like me around Anya.

She’s always been fond of Anya and always looked after her. The only time I saw a reaction out of her was on our engagement night, and her response that night was still not as bad as this. But again, she was intoxicated; how do I know this was how she truly felt? Autumn acted totally different when the alcohol was out of her system, she was understanding, and she didn’t mind when I took time to care for Anya. It was like she was a totally different person.

I realized that she was still waiting for a response from me, and the more I remained silent, the more she would think that I was planning on seeing Anya tonight when the truth remained that I was only joining a search.

That was the last thing I wanted her to think about after tonight. I’ve always known that Autumn has never had any love interests.

For her to give a part of herself to me tonight would surely upset her tomorrow, I wanted her to know that it was something I would treasure and not take for granted. She’d never had a serious boyfriend, and boys have always chased after her, but I’ve done my part of telling them she was off limits. No one knows I did that. Even I wasn’t sure why I’d done it. At that time, I told myself I was protecting my mate’s best friend from heartbreak. I knew none of those men were ever worthy of her, and I was positive that they would hurt her. I made sure that it never happened. And if I had an opportunity to do it all over again, I would. If I’d known Autumn like I did now, I’d have been even more protective of her in the past.

She attempts to walk away from me, and I pull her straight back so that her back is now pressed up against the front of me. I ignore how good it felt to hold her like this. If I kept those thoughts, I will be of no help to the others.

“Autumn,” I whisper, “I’m not going to see Anya. I’ve been told that two of our guests have gone missing. I’m joining the search to find them before things get worse.”

She shouldn’t have any problems believing that since anyone can see what was going on around us.

Her lips form a small ‘o’, and her face brightens. And then she smiled that beautiful smile that crushed my heart, “who’s missing?”

“Kane and a woman that I don’t have a name for. She’s lost her memory for a while now. I don’t know what to call her.” I try to explain to her in the best way possible.

Her eyes widen, “that’s my friend! She’s the woman that was with Gabriella in the spa room!”

Spa room? I wasn’t sure what Autumn was speaking about. When did they become friends? Why were they in the spa room?

“I need to go with you!” She shouts. “We need to find her.”

I’m immediately tensed because of her words. I didn’t bring her back to the house so that she could join the search. There wasn’t any room for discussions about this. She was not going.

“No,” I growl. “You’re in no position to be out there searching with us. You need to rest.”

“But she’s my friend Atticus. She’s a good girl. I want to help find her.” She begs. I hated saying no to her when she was this desperate to find her friend, but I’d made up my mind. She could barely stand straight; how could she survive hours of walking in the forest? There is no telling how long this search was going to take. We’re not even sure if they’re on the island; we’re just hoping for the best at this point.

I pick her up into my arms when she tries to move toward the search party. I wasn’t putting her life in danger; besides, I wouldn’t be able to help if I had to keep making sure she was okay every second. And that’s what it was like whenever Autumn was around me, everything revolved around her and ensuring she was okay.

“I want to go with you.” She continues to say while I’m carrying her. “I can help.”

“The only place you’re going to is your room,” I tell her as I walk into the house with her still in my arms. I notice a few stares our way but that’s the least of my concern. She’s my main concern.

I open the room assigned to us, and to my surprise, it’s decorated with roses all over the ground and even on the bed. My parents have obviously thought about everything. Did they expect something to happen between us tonight when this was more of an arranged marriage than anything else?

But things did happen, something that I wasn’t sure how Autumn would react to tomorrow.

I gently placed her on the bed and covered her with a blanket, “Get some sleep. I promise to find your friend. I’ll bring her back here and prove to you that I keep my promises.”

When I step out of the door, Anya is waiting for me. I pause, unsure of what to do now that she’s here. Things are awkward between us for the first time since I met her a few years ago.

I know that there is plenty she wants to say to me. I can tell she’s holding back, but after a few seconds of us just staring at each other, she finally gives in. I knew I couldn’t avoid this confrontation forever. It’s better to get it over with now than later when things become more complicated. It was already complicated. I wasn’t sure what was this s****l tension between Autumn and me. It’s stronger than anything else I’ve ever experienced in my life before. After tonight, I’d need plenty time just to come to terms with what had happened at the spring.

“Did you have to do that in front of me?” Anya asks, successfully breaking me out of my thoughts. She’s no longer trying to hide her anger from me; she’s letting it flow freely.

“Do what?” I ask, even though I know what she’s speaking about. If she was this angry about a kiss between Autumn and me, how would she react if she found out what happened between us in the spring?

It reminds me of the promise I’d made to her. To not take Autumn to bed. What the f**k was I thinking? After tonight I didn’t think it was possible to keep that promise. I always kept my commitments, but I’ve been breaking all my promises to Anya recently. It makes me feel guilty, but I can do nothing about it.

I’m not sure what Anya expects from me anymore. I’m married. There is nothing I can do about this thing between us. I’m not a cheater. I’ve never been that, and I don’t plan on being it now; I would not do that to Autumn, no matter how much I loved Anya. I was doing us both a favor by keeping her away from me. How would she like it if the articles announced her as my mistress? No one would respect her if anything like that ever hit the news.

But was I truly keeping Anya away from me? I still cared for her, and I still ran to her whenever she was hurt. I hadn’t completely cut her out of my life, even though now was the perfect time to do it.

What was I waiting for? All of the memories and emotions I had tied to her were preventing me from doing what I had to. Even now, I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to step out of my life for good.

I hear a noise inside the room, which puts me on high alert.

Anya shouldn’t be here. Autumn may get the wrong idea if she walks outside and sees her with me. She asked me not to see Anya tonight. Did this mean that I was going against her word? I didn’t tell Anya to meet me here. I wasn’t even aware that she had followed us up here.

“Kiss her in front of me!” She hissed. I’d forgotten that we were still speaking about the kiss. I was already panicking while thinking about Autumn and what could go wrong if she opened that door. “Out of every possible way you can hurt me, this is how you choose for it to happen?”

“I didn’t expect Autumn to kiss me.” I point out. “But she’s my wife, Anya. She can kiss me whenever she pleases. We’re no longer together. This has to stop. I can’t keep comforting you, or Autumn will get the wrong idea. I don’t want to ruin my marriage even before it starts.”

“I’m not asking you to ruin your marriage for me!” She shouts. “I’m asking you to at least have some consideration around me. In case you haven’t realized, Atticus. I still love you. It hurts to see you with her, but you don’t care about that! All you care about is her! My best friend!”

I looked behind us; her voice was getting louder. I was afraid that Autumn would hear her.

“Can you please keep it down?” I tell her.

“No!” She shouts even louder than before. “I love you!”

Before I can react, she throws herself at me and wraps her arms around me. I’m too shocked to respond quickly, and of course, that’s when Autumn opens the door and finds us together. Her lips parted as she stared at the two of us. She looks from me to Anya and then back to me again. I can see the flicker of emotions in her eyes; this isn’t f*****g happening to me right now. Things were improving between us, and this will surely ruin that progress.

Her eyes are filled with tears as she looks between us, “you lied to me.” She whispers.

I didn’t think four words could hurt me this much but f**k, the pain I felt was almost unbearable.

“Autumn, this isn’t what it looks like.” I try to say.

“It’s exactly what it looks like, Atticus.” Anya cuts in. “I’m hugging you while explaining how much I love you. Autumn hasn’t misunderstood anything.”

I grab Anya by her arms and shove her away from me. I should have done that a long time ago; I was just too startled by seeing Autumn. I didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings between us. I wanted her to trust me, also, but if things like this kept happening, how could she trust me? Even I wouldn’t be able to trust myself under these circumstances.

“Autumn,” I repeat as I take a step toward her.

She takes one back, “you said you were going to search for my friend. You said that you weren’t going to see Anya tonight.

Every word that you said to me was a lie. I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say to me, Atticus.”

“Give me five minutes to explain. I’ll tell you everything.” I tried to convince her, but she wasn’t being reasonable. She didn’t want to listen to a word I was saying. And Anya wasn’t making this easier for me.

Why didn’t she tell her the truth? Why was she purposefully trying to hurt her?

“Autumn!” I shout as she slams the door behind her. I hear the loud click, knowing she’d just locked me out of the room.

I run a hand through my hair as I try to remain calm.

“I can’t f*****g believe it.” I roar. “What the hell were you thinking, Anya?”

“What was I thinking?” She demands. “I was thinking of the promises you made to me right before you got married, Atticus. Did you forget about them? I thought you were a man of your word. Or are you someone else now that you’ve married Autumn? Do you even know yourself anymore?”