Page 94 of Ruthless Devotion
“It’s not… the mob, exactly. He’s not even full Italian. His mother was Irish. And… he’s not old. He’s the new boss… he inherited the family business. He’s… young… your age.”
Oh that makes it better. I hold out my hand for the envelope my father is clutching.
He sighs and hands it over. I open it and pull out an engraved wedding invitation. I can feel the indentations from the engraving plates on the back of the paper.
* * *
Mr. Albert Prescott and Margot Prescott request the pleasure of your company to celebrate the marriage of their daughter
* * *
Madison Hilary Prescott
to
Aidan Antonio Stryker
* * *
at half past six in the evening on Saturday, the fourteenth of June at Our Lady of Hope Church.
* * *
I read it no fewer than six times. Finally, I look up.
“Did you have these invitations printed?” I demand, wondering if they’ve been sneaking around behind my back planning all this.
“He did.”
“I’m not marrying him!” I rip up the invitation and throw it on the floor as though it’s the only one that exists, and now it would be quite impossible for anyone to make me go through with this.
“Madison, please don’t do this. I know a lot has been asked of you. I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but… he will kill me if you don’t do this. And then I don’t know what he’ll do with you and your mother, but his implication was not good.”
“So, you think I’ll be safe marrying him? Let’s just run. Just get in the car and go. It’s not like we have literally anything anymore. We can be poor anywhere!”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”
Of course, it’s that simple. What does he mean it’s not that simple?
“I’ll run away. I am NOT marrying him!”
“You don’t even know him,” My dad says.
In ordinary circumstances I would say ‘Exactly, which is an excellent reason to flee!’ but I DO know him.
“Don’t you recognize that name?” I say. “Aidan Stryker? That’s the kid that stalked me all the way from first grade until Junior High—the weird kid I complained about every single day until he got transferred out.”
I had forgotten about him until this exact moment. We were thirteen the last time I saw him. He was awkward and gangly and creepy as ever back then. Zero social skills or charisma. Just fucking weird as shit. He finally ended up getting expelled for starting a gang. In Junior High. I should have known he’d end up the head of some criminal enterprise when he was already building a rap sheet at thirteen. I think about those tall skinny guys in the alley. They looked like heroin addicts. That’s how I imagine Aidan looks now. I cannot and will not let this weird little freak win.
I thought when he went away to another school that was it, his fixation with me would end. Has he been stalking me this entire time? Through high school? Through college and beyond? Just waiting for his moment like a fucking psycho?
What if I’d just been his girlfriend in first grade? What if I hadn’t gotten that valentine from Brayden? Maybe we would have been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few weeks and then we would have broken up when he pulled my hair, and he would have moved on with his life. Nobody marries their first grade girlfriend.
I swear that kid is a psychopath. I keep forgetting he’s not a kid anymore. It’s like my brain has frozen him in time to the last time I saw him.
I shudder at the idea of giving this guy my virginity. It wasn’t like I was keeping myself pure for some religious reason. My family isn’t even religious. I just didn’t like anybody enough to… and I was busy with… things. Though there were times when I was dating when I thought the guy I was seeing might be the one, and then soon after he would mysteriously disappear from my life.
I don’t mean they disappeared like swimming with the fishes disappeared or anything like that. I mean… they would suddenly seem to lose interest. It was like I couldn’t freaking give my V-card away.
