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Eighteenth

The next day, I tried my best to cheer Hal up by letting her plan more of the wedding. I let her have her way on majority of the decisions, even if I hated the flowers she picked. She needed something to distract herself and I was willing to sacrifice some things to make her a little happier.

The day however did not fly by like Vox had told me it would. It dragged on and on for what seemed like forever. There had been still a million things to in the days approaching. The stress was starting to pile up. I was panicking about the impending date coming up so soon as well as trying to get all of this stuff done. The whole debacle with Koontz only added to my stress levels.

I worried about where he was, what he was doing, how they were treating him, if his case was moving along. Most of all I worried about if he was still alive. I hadn’t heard any news about him all day. I didn’t know if his trial was going to be publicized, or if he would even get a trial. He could already be dead.

Whenever these thoughts crept up, I tried to stamp them out with whatever wedding assignment I had in front of me . But most of the time it didn’t work. I had a feeling it wasn’t working for Hal either. She went through the motions, not really there. She wasn’t as enthused as she normally was. She would zone out until I prompted her a question about her opinion.

After dinner I made an excuse to hide in my room for the rest of the night. Hal seemed like she wanted to be alone as well. I decided to read the book I had gotten from the library. Dr. Jekyll has just shut himself away without an explanation. I delved into the story and my surroundings and thoughts faded away.

I only emerged from my book when someone took it from my hands. “Hey!”

Vox gave me a kiss. “Hi.”

"I was reading that.” Another kiss.

“And now you’re not.” Another kiss.

“But, I wanted to keep reading.” I reached behind him to grab my books still in his hand. Sadly, he closed the book and tossed it so it landed on my desk. “Be careful, that’s the library’s.”

“Its fine.” He gave me another kiss, this one long and deep.

I broke away from him, “Can I keep reading?”

Vox sighed, “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, “Nothing, I just got to a good part.”

He frowned, “It’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There are no good parts.”

“Well, I like it.”

Vox got up from the bed, “I’m going to take a shower, do you want to join?”

I shook my head, “No thanks. I just want to read.”

He threw his hands up, “What’s your problem?”

I stood up, “My problem?”

“Yeah, you’re problem. I just want to spend time with you, but all you want to do is read.”

“Yeah, I like to read. It helps me get away.”

He rolled his eyes, “Get away from what? It’s not like you’re living in that rat hole of a sector anymore.”

Now I was pissed. “Are you kidding me? ” I grabbed the closest object and threw it at him. He dodged the clock easily. Aim is not my forte. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong.”

“Yeah it did.” I crossed my arms.

He took a step closer, “I just meant to say, what do you have to be upset about? I’ve given you everything you could need. If you want something just tell me.”

I rolled my eyes, like my worries were all superficial? “I’m upset because my best friend was arrested for murder.”

“Yeah, because he killed Felicity.”

I was furious. Anything he said just fueled my fire. I couldn’t stand to look at him any longer. “Get. Out.”

He scoffed, “You can’t make me get out. This is my house, and right now you’re just a guest.”

I shoved him, “You’re such an asshole. Get out. Get out. Get out.”

The door opened, “What is going on in here?”

Vox turned to Hal standing in the middle of the doorway, “This isn’t your business, Hal.”

“To hell it’s not.” She stormed over to us, “Vox, I think it’s time you just left Emmary alone. You can finish your conversation once you’ve cooled off.” She grabbed at his arm.

He pulled his arm out of her grasp and pushed her away. Hal took a step back in shock and tripped over the clock I had thrown earlier. She landed on the ground hard. Vox’s face lifted from angry to concerned.

“Hal!” He reached out to help her, “Are you okay? I am so sorry. You know I would never do anything on purpose. I am really sorry.”

Hal waved off his help. “I’m fine. Just leave.” She stood on her own. “Just leave before you do any more damage.”

Vox huffed before finally throwing his hands up in the air and slamming the door on his way out. Hal rolled her eyes, “Are you okay? Vox has no excuse to talk to you like that.”

“I’m fine, I think what happened with Felicity and Koontz is just putting us all a little on edge. Are you okay?”

She nodded, “Yeah I’m fine.” She bent down and picked up the clock, “He didn’t actually push me that hard. I just tripped over this clock.” She set it back where it belonged on the nightstand.

“That’s my fault. I threw it.”

Hal waved me off, “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” She sighed and sat down on my bed, I joined her. “I just worry about Vox. I think he’s been under a lot of pressure lately and then Felicity died and I think he’s taking it pretty hard.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I can tell.”

Hal smiled and pulled me in for a hug. “It’ll all blow over. Okay? Everything is going to work out.” She was smiling when she pulled away. The same smile as Clinson Vaughn. I bit my lip. She furrowed her eyebrows, “Is there something else?”

I shrugged, “Nothing.” I didn’t really know how to say I thought Mr. Bly wasn’t really her father. That I thought that my dead aunt’s match who had an affair with Mrs. Bly was her real father. How was I supposed to explain my suspicion?

Her eyes widened, “You don’t know do you?” She looked like a brown eyed deer in headlights.

How could she know what I was thinking? What would make her suspect that I knew about that fact that she wasn’t a Bly but a Vaughn? I decided to play my cards close to my chest. If she had another secret I wanted to know. I shook my head, “Know what?”

Hal met my eyes and looked back and forth between them as if she was trying to read me. She finally looked away and down at my hands, “Just that before everything with Yale happened, Vox had planned on running away with Felicity and-.”

“Wait, What?”

Hal bit her lip, “He ended up backing out and staying here. And then Yale happened and then he caught Felicity with Ketchum and it all crashed and burned. I don’t know I think that her death has brought up a lot of those old feelings for him. Last night we talked about it and he feels guilty, like if he had actually gone through with running with her that she wouldn’t have been killed. I don’t know, I think it's just been really hard.”

We sat in silence for a little while. Vox had given me the impression that it was just a fling. Not that he was going to run away with her. Not that he was so desperately in love with her enough to want to evade the law. But he had also backed out. What caused him to change his mind? Hal put a hand across my shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dump all that on you. I’m sorry.”

I shook my head, “No don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded, “Yeah of course. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. I mean he had a past love he almost ran away with. I had a past love I almost ran away with. The key word is past.”

Hal gave me a huge smile and my mind returned to wondering about Clinson Vaughn. I wonder if he knew he had a daughter. “I’m glad you said that.”

We got quiet again and I found my self wondering about Yale. I had heard her name float through the halls, mentioned briefly, but never the full story. “What happened to Yale?”

Hal looked immediately to her hands. “She, uh, she killed herself.”

I wasn’t really surprised or shocked about this. The pressures of this society and dealing with Mr. Bly seemed like too much sometimes. I never contemplated suicide, but it wasn’t hard to imagine why someone would. “Why?”

Hal licked her lips, “Well, she, uh, she left a note that said that she couldn’t handle the pressure of marrying a Bly. It wasn’t really specific. I personally thought it was strange. She was from an upper sector so she shouldn’t have been under that much pressure. I mean it’s not like we told her she wasn’t good enough or pretty enough or ostracized her from the family. Father had some quarrels with her, but in the end he liked her enough. I don’t know. Like I said, I didn't know her very well, we never talked.” Hal sighed and closed her eyes.

I didn’t want to bother her anymore but I had one more question to ask, “How did she, how did she do it?”

Hal looked at me, “She jumped off the bridge outside of town. The river swept her body away. It was never found.”

Okay, I had one more, “How did they know then?”

Hal sighed, “Addeck saw her do it. It messed him up pretty bad afterwards. He took her death really hard. I mean he had lost his fiancé and Father named Vox the next Selector all in the same week. Father said his successor had to have a matched wife, had to have children. He joined the guard shortly after and then got dishonorably discharged and now he does whatever shady stuff he does.”

Well, that explained sketchy Addeck. “Thanks for sharing with me, Hal.”

Hal nodded and then gave me another hug, “You should probably know the family secrets before you join. And trust me, we have a lot of them.”

This prompted more questions, I opened my mouth to speak, but Hal held up her hand to stop me. “I’ll share the rest later. It’s been a long day and I think I’m going to go to sleep.”

I smiled and hugged Hal one last time before she left. When the door shut, I felt suddenly exhausted. I laid down on the bed and immediately fell asleep.