Page 38 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

Tobias saw the shift in his demeanor, too, and cocked his head to the side.

“What?” he asked Finn. “Are you seriously getting defensive over her?”

“All of this…” Finn said, voice still dangerously quiet, gesturing to himself, to his moroseness of the last couple of months. “All of this was to defend her. And I’m sorry, Tobias, that for the first time in our lives, I’ve not let you in on something, but quite frankly, it was none of your business.”

Tobias surged forward and took Finn’s shirt collar in his fists, pushing him up against the wall until they were nose to nose and Finn was trapped. Finn didn’t have time to feel anything other than shock.

“I’m making it my business,” Tobias growled. “Because that is what you’re supposed to do when you see a friend drowning. So how about you get over yourself and tell me the full story!”

“No,” Finn growled back, sounding feral.

“Why not?”

“Because it washerstory. Hers. Her voice was crushed, again and again, so no, I wasn’t just going to go around and tell people, even you, what had really happened. The last thing I was going to do was addmoreweight to her shoulders. She was so scared, Tobias. She was so sad and scared and desperate. She had no one to advocate for her, no one on her side! So she took drastic matters to avoid a marriage she didn’t want, and I don’t blame her. I really don’t.”

Finn couldn’t care less right now if anyone heard him shouting. Maybe it would be better if people knew the truth of it all, how backed into a corner they’d made Eva feel.

Tobias’s scowl had started to morph into something different, something more confused, as he tried to piece together what Finn was saying. The tension was slowly starting to leave him as he began to realize how much bigger this was than the small sliver he’d seen at the palace, the misery he’d seen in Finn since.

“It was all to get out of the engagement?” he asked, though it seemed like he already knew the answer.

Finn nodded, trying to rein himself in and not explode at his friend, not when he was only trying to help.

Tobias threw his hands in the air, still exasperated but backing away from Finn at least and giving him some space.

“Why didn’t she just say she didn’t want to marry you like a normal person?” he cried.

“Seriously?” said Finn, shaking his head at him. “We had this same discussion about whyIcouldn’t just call it all off. You should know better than anyone the peer pressure people like us are under to conform to tradition, to the will of the majority. Do you really think she could just stand up and say ‘no, thank you’ totworoyal families?”

Tobias hummed in defeat. “No,” he said. “That sounds pretty much impossible.”

“Now add being a woman into the mix. How many people are going to take no for an answer then?”

Tobias had the decency to look shamefaced at that.

“Eva wanted…neededto be free,” said Finn, trying to defend Eva with every breath in his body. “She couldn’t do that married to me.”

“So you’re making yourself miserable in the process?”

“Yes!” hissed Finn. “Yes. And I would do it again. Because at least that was my choice. The choice she wasn’t granted. There is no way that she could have refused that engagement herself without everyone dragging her through the mud, not after what her family had already been through with the press.”

Tobias let out a sharp sigh, all of the fight leaving his body with that one breath. Relief flooded Finn, glad that his friend had finally understood.

“And now what?” Tobias said, now looking sad rather than angry. “You’re going to be the one trapped in an engagement, amarriagethat you don’t really want?”

Finn just shrugged. “It’s my choice, Tobias. At least I have the luxury of having a choice.”

CHAPTER18

EVA

Eva and Abbie had talked, planned, come up with ideas, scrapped them again, and finally settled on what to do.

As dramatic and over the top as flying to Eschenberg had sounded at first, this wasn’t a conversation Eva could have with Finn over a phone call. Not after what he’d done for her by calling off the engagement. Not after how well he’d treated her. He deserved better than that. Also, if she saw him in person, she was less likely to chicken out and run away.

It definitely wasn’t just an excuse to see him in person again, one last time. Definitely not.

Abbie had insisted on coming with her to Eschenberg. Eva wouldn’t have argued even if she’d wanted to. There was a fiery determination in the eyes of her friend that made it clear she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. So she’d booked tickets for the next day, not telling her family she’d be back in Europe again. They didn’t need to know. This wasn’t about them. Finn was the only person whose opinion mattered.

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