“I’m going,” said Asher, putting his hands up in surrender.
And then he walked out of the church. A whimper instead of obeying. Probably for the best, since Justice didn’t especially want to get arrested today. But he was willing to. He was absolutely willing to.
“What happened?” Daughtry asked.
“He cheated on Rue. He called the wedding off. I would’ve killed them. But I thought maybe you didn’t want to arrest your own brother.”
“I might’ve looked the other way,” Daughtry said.
Because that was how much they all loved Rue.
“I have to go to Rue.”
“Yeah. Hey. We’ll explain this to the guests. She doesn’t need to do it.”
“Damn straight,” said Justice.
He trusted that to his siblings. He didn’t trust Rue to anyone but him.
He went straight back into the dressing room, where she was sitting on the floor, her knees held up to her chest. “What am I going to do?”
She looked lost and miserable. His favorite little go-getter totally devastated by this. This woman who was never without a plan. There she was all curled up like a kid again. Like when her parents had hurt her.
“Aw, Rue,” he said, getting down on the floor beside her. He put his arm around her, and held her up against him. “First of all. You’re going to be fine.”
“Am I?” she asked, her voice watery.
“Yes. You are. Because you have been through way worse than this. And there is no ineffectual, weak-willed man who deserves to take a damn thing from you.”
“But he did,” she said, wiping tears away. “Eight years of my life. I invested eight years of my life in him.”
“That isn’t all you did,” he said. “You kept the yarn shop going, and you made your grandmother’s house a home. You lived your own life. It wasn’t all about him. Ever. You’re one of the most levelheaded people I’ve ever known, and you were levelheaded when it came to him too. I always admired it. Because so many people completely lose it when they get into a relationship. Like they forget how to function. Forget how to think. But you never did. You never gave all of yourself to him. You’re still here.”
They sat in silence for a long time. “I should give you your necklace back,” she said.
“No,” he said. “Don’t do that.” His stomach was tight. “You keep it. Because it was about you making a better life. You’re still going to do that. You don’t need him to do that. You only need yourself.”
She looked up at him, her face tear streaked. It killed him. “But that’s lonely. I was so tired of being alone. You asked me earlier how I felt about my parents not being here, and the truth is I felt okay. Because I was making a family. With him. Finally. Now I’m not going to have that. I don’t have a family. And I...”
“You have me,” he said. “You have the Kings. I know it’s not what you mean. I know it’s not what you wanted. But you have us.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice thin.
He pulled her in tighter, and she rested her hand flat on his chest. He covered it with his own, and sat with her like that. Him in the tux, her in the bridal gown.
“What did you do?” she asked finally.
“I punched him in the face.”
She jerked away. “You didn’t.”
“I did. He’s going to go back home to that other woman with a fat lip and a sizable bruise. I’m not sorry about it.”
“You can’t just punch people, you know. It’s assault and stuff.”
He shrugged. “It turns out I did, though. So what’s anyone going to do about it?”
She sighed. The way that she did when he was feral, accepting that she couldn’t change him. In context with everything, at least that felt normal.
