3: 3
3
The words landed, and every guest below rose to their feet.
Ruby grabbed a fistful of my dress, staring at me like she couldn't believe her ears. "What did you say? Say it again!"
"The nerve! The absolute nerve of her! Landon! Look at your wife! Wonderful, just wonderful! Landon! You deal with this yourself!"
She clutched the memorial tablet and wailed.
Not much to her, really. Cling to a dead man and cry. Was there anything else she could do?
Landon frowned, displeased. "Apologize to my mother, kneel and kowtow to my father. Is that so hard?"
"Yes."
He looked genuinely baffled, pressing me. "Davina, be reasonable. You owe my father a life. My mother isn't asking anything else of you. She just wants you to kneel and repent. You're carrying a child. Think of the baby, at least. Don't heap sin on it."
Ruby scrambled to her feet, as if she'd caught me out.
She jabbed a finger at my belly. "If it weren't for that pregnancy, do you think we'd have brought you in this properly? With a wedding this grand!"
I laid a hand on my stomach, and for the first time my heart went cold all the way through.
"If it weren't for the pregnancy, I wouldn't have married in this easily either. I gave your family a break, knowing things were hard for you. You—"
"Ha!" Ruby scoffed. "You were scared your belly would show and you'd never find some fool to take you, and scared my family wouldn't want you either, weren't you? Young and knocked up before the wedding, what kind of decent girl could you be? My family was still willing to marry you. You should be counting your blessings."
I turned to Landon. "You think so too?"
His face darkened. He turned his head away, wouldn't meet my eyes.
"How much of a favor do you expect from my family? And this child, didn't you choose to carry it yourself?"
I slapped him across the face. "Landon! This is your child!"
He wiped the corner of his mouth and gave a low sneer. "Heh. But the belly's on you. If you didn't want it, there's nothing I could do about it, is there?"
"Oh, come on now, Davina, enough. We haven't said much to you. Just repent, quickly. Say, 'This sinful wife will always remember my father-in-law's kindness, and I will repay the life I owe with this pregnancy.' That's all."
A furious laugh broke out of me. I cupped my belly and took a step back.
"No."
Landon pulled Ruby behind him. "This is my family's rule. You want to marry in, you follow every step of it properly."
He tossed a cushion at me. "There's your padding. Don't be dramatic."
"Landon, and if I say no?"
He brushed the dust off the cushion, his voice gone completely cold. "Don't push me, wife."
When he turned his head back, there wasn't a trace of love in his eyes. Something in them was almost frightening.
"What are you going to do?"
He didn't answer. He drew a dagger out from under the altar table.
The blade sat over a white candle, heating.
Below, his sister-in-law lounged with one leg crossed over the other and explained, "It's our family's rule. Since you won't repent, and you don't know a good thing when you see it, then we bleed you to atone. That's all."
Ruby jumped in, thrilled with the drama. "Oh, seeing as she's carrying my grandbaby, only bleed half. What are you two standing around for? Go hold her down for me!"
Two burly men below charged at me with ropes.
I stepped back. There was nowhere left to go.
