Chapter 164
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The movie room was dark except for the screen.
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Ivy had claimed the whole left side of the couch like she always did, blanket up to her chin, red bowl of popcorn between us.
I was home for a week. Then it was back to Monaco for the race. I was trying not to think about that yet. I wanted to enjoy this quiet moment, away from all the chaos.
“You always cry at this part,” I said.
“I do not.”
“You do. Lady Finds Northie. The dock scene. You go silent and then you sniff like you have allergies.”
Ivy kicked me under the blanket. “Watch the dog, Shaw.”
I watched her instead, for a second. She has lived in our house for five years now. She had been twelve when the accident took her parents. Mom and Dad had brought her in without making a speech about charity. She was just Ivy after that. My sister on paper. Adopted or not, I was protective of her in a way that made Grayson roll his eyes and made me stay in the hallway too long when she had a boy on the phone.
I’d never been that protective of anyone else before. I didn’t know why. Maybe I felt sorry for her, maybe there was a deeper reason I chose to ignore.
Sometimes the protectiveness sat too close to something else. Something I refused to name.
Not on a couch with a dog movie and seven days until Monaco.
Lady ran through snow on screen. Ivy mouthed the line before it happened. I flicked popcorn at her hair. She threatened to tell mom I had a death wish before Monaco. We were laughing when the lights came on.
Richard Shaw stood in the doorway.
“Stop the movie.”
Ivy hit pause. Ivy did not look at me. She looked at Dad like she already knew the air had changed.
I stood up. “What’s wrong?”
Dad did not sit. He never sat when it was business.
“You will be marrying Olivia Monroe by the end of this month.”
The room seemed to shift.
“What?” I laughed once, not because it was funny. “You are joking right?”
“Do I look like I am, son?”
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
I stood up. He was actually serious.
No. I’m too young. I have my whole life ahead of me. I have a grid in seven days. I am not marrying Blair’s sister because William Monroe is in a bad mood.”
Ivy had gone still beside me. Not laughing. Not even blinking. She did not look happy about the news. Something in my chest kicked at that and I pushed it away because I could not look at it now.
The blanket had slipped. Her hands were white in the fabric. Once more, I felt like I needed to protect her
“You have no other option,” Dad said. “William called. You know how important our relationship with that family is. Be prepared. End of the month. Announcements this week. You will be seen with her everywhere.”
I stared at him. “Olivia. Blair’s sister. The one who just got photographed with Luca Vescari. She’s in love with Luca. Asked me for his number. Why not let her marry him? He might actually be serious about her.”
“Her father called for you. Not Luca, the player all fathers keep their daughters away from!”
“That is insane.”
“That is the arrangement.”
I took a step forward. “I am not Grayson. I am not going to marry a girl because you said so. He did what he had to do. That does not make me a spare part you bolt onto the Monroe name when they have a messy week. I drive. I race. I am not a solution to their problems!”
Dad’s voice stayed soft for one more second.
Then it did not.
“You will watch your mouth in this house.”
“Then don’t walk into a movie night and auction me.”
“You are a Shaw,” he shouted. The sound cracked the room. Ivy flinched. I did not. “You will do what Grayson did. You will show up. You will make it look natural. I am not asking. I am telling you. William Monroe does not call this family with a request. He calls with a date. You will meet it.”
“I have a race!” I shouted back. “I have a season. I have a life that is not a press release. You do not get to hand me a bride I barely know because her father is angry and you like the alliance.”
“You will like the alliance when it keeps this
family’s name next to theirs.”
Ivy still had not said a word. The silence coming off her was louder than my father. I glanced at her and she looked away, jaw tight, like she didn’t want me to see her face right now.
Dad pointed at the paused screen like it was evidence I was still a child. “You can finish the movie after you understand this wedding is happening. End of the month. You will take her to dinner. You will be photographed. You will not be photographed with anyone else.”
“This week at home was supposed to be my break,” I snapped. “Not for fitting a ring to a problem I did not
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create.”
When grow up. Dad shouted. “Grayson grew up. You will too.”
He left the lights on when he went.
Ivy’s popcorn bowl had tipped. She still would not look at me.
What the fuck was happening right now? Was this how Grayson had felt when he was forced to marry Blair?
Monaco suddenly felt farther away than a plane ticket, and the girl on the other end of the couch looked like the last comforting thing in the house had just been taken off the table.
AD
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T41 Mon, Sep 21 1 MJ.
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.