My Wife, My Rules – 6. chapter

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The inn breathed with the heavy stench of smoke, spilled wine, and old wooden floors. Aiden moved between the tables with his breath half held, as though trying not to draw too much of that mixture of odors and lies into his lungs. He carried himself as though he had eyes in the back of his head. Trust was a foreign tongue here, and lies were the currency. Yet he needed information. And he was willing to pay for it. He put the word out and vanished from there as quickly as steam from a pot.

He had requested an invitation to the Anagnostos household. He wanted to know what he was being asked to bind himself to. And he learned … nothing.

The silence that surrounded his conversation with Tess’s parents was unnaturally smooth. Too smooth. They wanted nothing. No property. No promises. No visions of the future. Only that he agree to the marriage. That was all. Not a word about Tess. She was not present. He did not see her even once. And that absence rang like a warning bell in his mind. The more they said nothing of her, the louder the truth cried that something here was very wrong.

The next day she did not come to the ruins. And her absence carried the weight of the world. Like the deliberate silence of someone who most wished to scream.

Aiden returned to the inn. This time they made it clear that answers did exist. But they had a price. They were sold like wine that first intoxicates you with sweetness and then poisons you.

He stated his wish with restraint. He wanted to know everything about the beautiful red-haired woman of this town. Nothing more. Only facts. No inventions. No village fabrications.

The man who answered him was no ordinary informant. He seemed like a shadow stuck to the wall, one that had survived here longer than was decent. His voice was rasping, as though each word were dragged up from the bottom of a well. Aiden listened and felt the cold slowly burrow beneath his skin.

“The woman you seek is the daughter of the Anagnostos family…”

The words were sharp as glass, slowly cutting into the image he had formed of Tess.

Twins. One beautiful, social, chosen for display. The other. Theressa. Shut away in her own world. Invisible. The terror of respectable society. They called her “crazy” because she feared people.

“Their plan is to present Viktoria to the prospective groom… and marry Theressa to him instead. To get her out of her sister’s way. Then Viktoria will have perfect prospects for a fine husband and a wealthy life. And as for the crazy one, the newlywed may do with her as he pleases.”

Each word echoed in Aiden’s ears long after the man fell silent. He poured the remnants of wine into himself, but the aftertaste of the tale could not be drunk away. He left a few gold coins and departed.

In his chamber he lay motionless, one arm beneath his head, his eyes fixed upon the cracks in the ceiling. He still heard that voice. Those reasons. That twisted logic. Could they treat her so? Could they sacrifice her like a dummy, simply to preserve the reputation of their “better” daughter?

Tess did not come to the ruins again. And Aiden, now an initiated uninitiated, went once more to the Anagnostos household and gave his consent to the marriage. Their relief was nearly tangible. They nodded. Proposed a wedding within days. No questions. No conditions. No interest in his true feelings. Still less in the feelings of their own daughter.

Tess did not appear the following day. Nor after. As though they had hidden her beneath a glass bell until the fateful I do was spoken.

Aiden wanted to shout. He wanted desperately to tell her that they were giving her to him. That he would take care of her. That he would not hurt her. That she need not be afraid. But there was no way. He felt like an accomplice.

He was no longer the one being deceived.

He was the one deceiving her with them.