My Gown Had No Gems, So I Walked Out of My Own Bonding Ceremony novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: Names

Clara's POV

"Clara," said Jasper.

He said it low and slow, with nothing in it but my name.

It was the first time in days anyone had said it gently.

"Again," I said.

"Clara."

I took the paper out of his hand and put it on the windowsill.

Then I said what I had been carrying for four days.

"You stood in that circle and watched my father call me a liar," I said. "You let four hundred people think I spat on your gifts. You didn't defend me once."

"I know."

"I stood there alone, Jasper."

"I know." His voice cracked on it. "I thought you'd done it. I thought the letters were real, and you had sent them back on purpose, and I was standing there to be told so."

"You thought that of me?"

"For four years I thought you were a woman who wrote, do not write to me again." He swallowed. "The spring you turned eighteen, I sat down and wrote you three pages. Not the treaty form. A real letter, about the mine and my father and a dog we had. I wanted you to know there was a person on this side of the lake."

"I never got it."

"I know that now."

"I would have written back."

"I would have read it every night," said Jasper. "Instead of that."

We stood a hand apart in the dark corridor.

"I thought you only wanted a treaty," I said. "A wife on a list. Somebody the pack had already paid for."

"The treaty was my father's," he said. "I wanted the girl who kept my stone under her pillow. I knew she wasn't real, and I wanted her anyway."

"She's not real."

"No," he said. "You're better."

I kissed him.

He caught me by the waist and turned us, and my back hit the door of my room.

It swung open behind me, and we stumbled in, and he kicked it shut.

"Same room this time," I said against his mouth.

← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend