The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn

~CARTER~

“You suck,” Blaze says as he throws the ball into my chest.

My brothers were trying to cheer me up. I was forced to play this game with them, and I was losing miserably. It was intentional. I wasn’t even trying.

“Since when did you become so boring?” Cole asks me.

“Stop messing with him.” Alaric defends me like he always does.

I didn’t want to win. I wasn’t trying to.

One week. An entire week without seeing Scarlett. It was f*****g torture, just like I knew it would have been. Nothing in the world could make this easier for me.

“She keeps looking for you, you know,” Ares says suddenly.

The ball falls from my hand, and I slowly turn to look at him.

“Every day, when she sees anyone associated with you, she searches for you.” He continues. “And then her eyes are filled with disappointment when she doesn’t see you.”

My jaw clenches.

Alaric glares at him and shoves the ball into his chest. He didn’t want us to speak about Scarlett; he knew what the situation was doing to me. He doesn’t realize that I lived for these conversations. I held onto any news about her.

“Have you—” my voice breaks a little. “Have you been looking after her?”

He nods. “Just like you asked. No one is bullying her. They’ve all stopped talking about the big incident.”

Good.

It’s the only reason I agreed to stay away from the academy for a week. I had my brothers looking after her from afar.

An uncomfortable silence follows for a few seconds before Apollo throws the ball into my hands.

“Back to the game.” He tells me. “We were winning.”

My hands tighten on the ball. Before I can throw it, Violet walks out of the house and looks directly at me.

“We have company.” She informs us.

“We always have company; as long as it isn’t Nicole, we’re fine,” I respond.

The last person I wanted to see today was my brother’s wife. We had enough problems to deal with; we didn’t need her adding to the torture.

“I don’t think you’ll be fine when you find out who’s here, Carter.” She disagrees.

I pause with the ball in my hand. “Why do you say that?”

“Because the people here are girls you’ve messed around with.” She answers me. “And their parents are here with them. I think you’re in trouble.”

Two girls?

“What?”

“Who is it?” Alaric asks her.

“Clara and Scarlett.” She answers him.

Scarlett?

My eyes widen, and it takes a while for my body to catch up with my mind. What was she doing here?

I rush out of the backyard and into the house. If Violet were messing with me, she would not hear the end of this.

I rush into the hallway with my brothers right behind me.

“Where are they?” I demand from Violet.

“They’ve just arrived.” She answers me. “They’re still at the entrance.”

I rushed towards the front of the house and held my breath when I saw Scarlett. She was here.

Violet was telling the truth. They were both here.

So were their parents.

Why was everyone here? They’ve never visited my home all together like this before. It’s the first time.

Something must be wrong. Why else would they be here? Scarlett made it clear that she never wanted to speak to me again. What would force her to come here?

What was happening?

Was I still dreaming about her? If it was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to look at her more.

I take a step forward, and in that second, her father’s eyes fall on me. I’ve never seen someone look at me with such hatred in my life. In that second, I knew that he’d come here for me. He must have found out that I’d slept with Scarlett. He was here to punish me. I’d gladly take any punishment he had to give to me. I deserved the worst possible pain for hurting her.

“You!” He roars.

None of us are prepared when he runs up to me and grabs me by my collar.

“HOW DARE YOU!” He shouts.

“What the hell is going on here?” Alaric demands.

My parents hear the commotion and run over to us.

“What is this about?” My father roars as he sees what’s happening.

“Get your hands off my son!” My mother shouts.

“Dad!” Scarlett cries. “Please stop this!”

“No!” Her father shouts. “He ruined your honor. He took advantage of your innocence and then dumped you like you were garbage. I said nothing when you hurt my Clara, even though it killed me inside, but what you did to Scarlett is even worse. I will not sit back and let you get away with it this time!”

“Dad!” Scarlett tries again.

“Stop interfering!” He scolds her. “He needs to pay for what he did.”

“What did he do?” My mother demands.

Even now, she never knew all the details about Scarlett and me. But she was about to find out today.

“He got my daughter pregnant!”

A deadly silence followed.

Confusion. Pain. Shock. They were all emotions swirling through my veins.

I looked down at my hands, they were shaking uncontrollably.

P-pregnant?

Scarlett was pregnant?