The-Wrong-Bride-Ares--Raven’s-story-(Maura,-Catharina)_bibis

Chapter Sixty-Five
RAVEN
My heart feels heavy as the driver that picked me up parks in a large elevator. It starts to rise, until the
car is parked in the corner of my friends’ living room. The passenger door opens, and my friend
Alanna offers me her hand. Her arms instantly wrap around me, enveloping me in a tight hug, and that
one small human gesture is enough to make me fall apart. I burst into tears, loud, heart wrenching sobs
escaping my throat as she leads me to the sofa. “I… I didn’t know where else to g-go,” I tell her.
Alanna and I have been friends ever since she walked into my boutique in search of a wedding
gown. No one has ever understood our friendship, but it’s one of the most genuine and closest I’ve
got. Alanna is one of a kind, and right now, she’s the one person that can give me the solace I need,
without judgement.
“I’m going to kill him,” she whispers.
“Easy, Little Psycho,” her husband, Silas, says.
Silas hands me a handkerchief with a small Ψ embroidered on it, a kind smile on his face.
“Alanna prepared this for you the moment you called our emergency line. She even ironed it.”
I take it from him with trembling hands and snuggle closer to Alanna, laying my head on her chest
as she strokes my back. “Tell me what happened, Rave,” she says, her voice soft.
I try to take a deep breath, but my sobs just start to come harder. Alanna tightens her grip on me,
her fingers gently combing through my hair, soothing me as best as she can.
“Get him,” Alanna tells her husband, her tone in stark contrast with the gentleness she’s showing
me. “Go get Ares Windsor for me. If Raven won’t tell me what happened, I’ll make him talk.”
Silas chuckles. “It’s not so simple, Ray. He’s a Windsor. I can’t just grab him without facing
consequences.”
“It… it wasn’t h-him,” I choke out.
Alanna pulls away from me and wipes my tears with the handkerchief she gave me. “Then who?”
I sniff, my eyes falling closed as I gather the courage to tell her what happened, not leaving out
any detail. I tell them about Sierra’s 21 st birthday, the wedding, the pregnancy. By the end of it, I’m
exhausted and heartbroken. “I can’t see an end to this,” I whisper. “Is this going to be my life now?
Marrying him was supposed to be my happily ever after, yet somehow, it feels like the beginning of
the end. Forever this time. If I stay, she’ll keep chipping away at my soul, until I end up a shell of who