Destined for Disaster ✔️

Chapter 52

Silence settled in the room after Jade's statement. Everyone sat unmoving in their seat, basking in discomfort. Jade's eyes narrowed, her gaze flitting around and eventually coming to rest on Ryleigh, who returned the look with a less than satisfying one of her own.

"No," Jade said, making a resolute gesture with her hand and pushing up from the sofa. "Don't look at me like that. I don't like that look."

Ryleigh didn't alter her facial expression.

"That's an 'I'm not going home' look," Jade said, shaking her head as though her insistence had any chance of changing Ryleigh's mind. "That's an 'I'm going to make Jade look bad in front of our father' look."

"Jade –"

"I don't want to hear it. I want you to get up and come with me."

Ryleigh sighed and moved her hands to her hair, gathering it and moving it away from her right shoulder. Jade's eyes settled on the mark that resided there.

"O, so that's what they meant," she said. "Did you – no, you didn't mark him back. I've seen no evidence of that. You can reject him, then."

"It's not that easy," Ryleigh said. "The mark needs to fade before I can reject him."

"What a hassle. How long will that take?"

"A week or more."

Jade scoffed a laugh. "No. Nah-ah. Not happening. That's too long. Father won't agree to it. You're going to have to leave without rejecting him."

"She can't do that," Julie said, her voice shooting up. "That would be torture for them both."

Jade looked at her with raised eyebrows, then turned back to Ryleigh. "You have no choice."

"Of course she has a choice," Ellis says. "She can't leave without rejecting Austin. It would be cruel."

A sigh slipped past Jade's lips. She twirled around to face Ellis. "I'm not as good at deciphering memories as my sister, but I get by. I know Austin mated her against her will. If he wanted her to reject him before leaving, he should have refrained."

"She would have died."

"Yes, so his decision was a logical one, but it has consequences. She told him she was going to leave. This does not change that." She rubbed her brow. "I'm not the bad guy here. It's not my call."

"I can't go back." Ryleigh shrugged one shoulder as if to say it's as easy as that.

"Don't be dramatic." She gestured around her. "Why? For this? It's different, I get that. We don't have a mansion at home. We don't have servants. We don't have a big pack. But none of that matters."

"It's not because of –"

"O, I'm sorry. You're meaning to say it's because of these people?" She flitted her hand over her shoulder. "Your mate's ex-lover, this soft-hearted controlling excuse of an alpha, or the womanising jerk who can't be bothered to take anything seriously?"

"Jade –"

"O, wait, no, I know. It's your mate, right? The one that currently doesn't even want to be in the same room as you. I get that you want to reject him first. I get that that's the kind thing to do, but we don't have time for that. We've given you two months, Ry."

"I know."

"These people don't care about you. We do."

"We care," Julie said.

"You care about your ex," Jade said, not bothering to look at her. "You care about fate. You don't care about my sister. If you did, you wouldn't have treated her the way you have. You wouldn't have ratted her out to your king. You know Alder is not going to let this rest, Ry. If you stay, you're dead."