Chapter 285

Hannah

The prison van was already waiting outside by the time Marcus realized that he had been wholly, truly, trapped.

“Did you really think that no one here would record your evil villain speech, Dad?” Noah said, clapping his hand on his father’s shoulder. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

Marcus didn’t respond. He just hung his head and grumbled something about wanting a lawyer, but it was no use. Emily, the illustrious journalist who had produced our documentary over the past year and a half, had just captured her final encore. Not even a man like Marcus could talk his way out of that one.

“This is going to make an amazing final episode,” Emily mused as she watched the footage on her phone. “Thanks for these glasses. They really came in handy.”

I offered her a smile. “Keep them. You never know when you’ll need a hidden camera.” At that, I glanced over at Zoe, who was as pale as death.

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to her. She didn’t look at me right away, although her gaze finally slid to me when I cleared my throat.

“Noah promised to reduce my sentence if I came,” was all she said.

I shot a look at Noah, who was busy with his father across the room. “That’s a promise for him to decide whether to keep or not,” I replied. “Personally, I wouldn’t.”

Zoe’s eyes narrowed. “I told you what you wanted and I came to your little party. Isn’t it enough—”

“For me? It’ll never be enough, Zoe. Not after what you did. Not just to me, but to the man I love.” I swallowed the sharp lump in my throat. “Maybe Marcus coerced you into doing awful things, promised you the glory you always felt you deserved. But at the end of the day, you were an adult who made her own decisions.”

She was silent, although I could practically feel the hatred radiating off of her. I nodded to her guard, who pulled her in the direction of the prison van, before I moved to Alvin.

“As for you,” I said, eyeing my cousin up and down, “I could say much the same. The things you did…”

Alvin shook his head and looked away. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“But you knew the risks of what you were doing,” I pressed. “You said yourself that you wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d died of that eating disorder and taking all those pills. Nothing can remedy that.”

My cousin opened his mouth to say something else, but I was finished talking to him. His guard whisked him away, and I turned to Doctor Patel and Scott.

“Doctor Patel,” I said, “your license to practice medicine has been formally revoked by the Alphas of Silvercrest. You have the right to a fair trial, if—”

“No.” The doctor shook his head. “I accept whatever punishment you will give me. No trial needed.”

I nodded. “Very well. You will be placed under house arrest for six months, after which you will be required to perform community service for an additional eighteen months.”

I nodded to Viona, who handed the doctor a packet with his sentence. “There are volunteering positions open at the eating disorder center. You’ll be assigned to the cleaning crew there.”

With that, the doctor was taken away by his correctional officer, who would handle the rest.

Finally, I turned to Scott.

I had no words for him—for the man I once trusted. The man who Noah trusted for many years. The man who I had confided in, who I believed to be my only ally when I needed one the most, who lied to my face and I’d been stupid enough to fall for it.

We just looked at each other. I stared into his red-rimmed eyes and pressed my lips into a thin line.

He sniffled and lowered his gaze.

By the time I returned to Noah’s side, Marcus had already been loaded into the prison van. If he had any other plans for Zoe and Scott, who were both his responsibility, then he didn’t tell me and I didn’t have the heart to ask tonight.

We watched in silence as the van drove away, the tires crunching down the gravel driveway. Neither of us said a word until the van moved past the front gates and disappeared down the road.

Finally, I turned to the guests, who had gathered on the front lawn.

“Is this… Is this a real engagement party or not?” Amber blurted out first.

I snorted; leave it to Amber to ask about the party first and foremost.

“You’re all welcome to stay for cake and champagne if you’re not too put off by the whole experience,” I said with a small smile. “But no, it’s not a real engagement party. We just needed a way to get Marcus to come to the house before he left the country again.”

I paused, feeling a bit guilty, then added, “You should all take your gifts back, by the way. Since we haven’t actually gotten engaged.”

“Would you like to?” Noah suddenly said from behind me. “Get engaged, I mean.”

My eyes widened, and I felt my heart stop in my chest. I turned slowly—and there he was. On one knee in the middle of the driveway. With a little velvet box in his hand.

I was too frozen to move, too frozen to speak, too astounded to even notice the excited murmurs from the nearby guests or the flash of Emily’s camera.

The ring he held out to me was delicate, the tiniest pink diamond set in a thin silver band. Plain and practical, but feminine. Me. Or rather, the woman I had become.

“Noah, I…” I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was stare at him, then the ring in his hands, then the one on my own finger.

“You didn’t really think I’d let you go to bed tonight without a new ring, did you?” Noah whispered, his eyes glimmering in the light of the moon shining through the clouds. “We went to all this trouble to throw this party…”

I swallowed hard, feeling for all the world as if my throat had closed up.

He was proposing to me. For real this time. With a ring that was empty, free of old memories and waiting to be filled with new ones.

Finally, all I managed to murmur was, “What should I do with the old ring?”

A chuckle rippled through the crowd. Noah laughed too, rising and closing the distance between us. “Can I assume that was a ‘yes’?” he whispered.

I nodded vehemently, suddenly feeling my face heat. “Y-Yes. It was a yes. I want to marry you.” My heart pounded, and I added, “Again.”

With a grin as wide as the crescent moon itself, Noah slipped the old ring off of my finger and replaced it with the new one. The guests swooned and cheered as he cupped his hand at the back of my neck and tugged me closer, pressing a warm, tender kiss to my lips.

I nearly melted in his arms.

When we pulled apart, my eyes fell back to the old engagement ring in his hands. I remembered when he had given it to me; it had felt like nothing more than a courtesy, a necessary gift to make the arranged marriage feel more official.

Nothing at all like this ring, which felt heavy with the weight of love and promise.

“What should we do with it?” I whispered.

Noah glanced up at the crowd. “I’m assuming no one here would like a cursed old ring,” he laughed, to which many of the ladies clutched their necklaces and stepped away as if the thing might ruin their relationships from afar.

Even Viona moved against Drake a little, shaking her head. Drake laughed and draped his arms around her shoulders. “No way, man,” he said. “You can toss that thing in a river for all I care.”

Noah and I looked at each other, clearly having the same thought at the same time.

“We don’t have a river,” I said, “but we have the next best thing.”

The next thing I knew, Noah and I were laughing, running hand-in-hand across the moonlit lawn. We made our way toward the small man-made pond that sat near the woods, which had become overgrown with cattails and snapping turtles over the years.

We stopped by the shore, a little breathless from laughter.

I took the old ring and looked up at Noah. “You’re sure you want to do this?” I asked.

He nodded, beaming, and pressed the ring into my palm. It felt heavy and cool against my skin. “Together?” he asked, wrapping his hand around my fingers.

I grinned and pulled our hands back. “Together.”

As one, we launched the ring into the pond. It sailed through the air in a high arc, the diamond catching the pale light of the moon one last time before it plopped into the water with a satisfying splash.

The moment it hit the surface, Noah dipped me low.

And my face turned as pink as my new ring as he kissed me there, in front of everyone.