Dying to Marry Him novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Not Canon

Kerensa's POV

At noon the ballroom was full, and Gilt stood at a gold lectern holding one sheet of cream paper.

The four women stood on my left. Rook stood on my right with his gloved hands behind his back.

He had not looked at me since he came down from the library.

"Darlings," said Gilt. "Today the house receives something rare. A final chapter, found this morning in Contestant Eight's own notebook."

"I haven't written a final chapter," I said.

"Handwriting does not lie, my dear."

He lifted the page, and the ceiling copied it in letters ten feet tall.

It was my handwriting. The loops were mine, and so was the slant.

I felt cold from my scalp to my heels.

Gilt cleared his throat and read it aloud in a voice made for theaters.

"The bride took his bare hand and said, I will tell you how it ends."

"He will stand at the altar among the candles in his black gloves, the thumb mended in black thread."

"I will be gone by dawn. He will say the line to the next girl, and the next, and he will never learn."

"It was the saddest ending she could think of, so it was the right one."

"THE END."

Then my ring closed.

It bit down on my finger, tight enough to cut, and I cried out and grabbed my hand.

Gold letters rolled across the ceiling. ENDING TOLD. VOW BROKEN. COLLECTION BEGINS.

"She told him the ending," a voice shouted from the crowd. "Look at the ring!"

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