"I know."
"She looks as trapped as you'd feel in her position."
"I know that too."
Tyler leans closer. "You're pack. She's not. That's what matters."
Across the way, Victoria nods at something Calder says. They start walking back.
Margaret straightens, smoothing her suit, arranging her face into anticipatory victory.
But when they reach us, Victoria doesn't sit down. She stands very straight, hands still twisted together, and looks at Margaret with an expression that might be terror or determination or both.
"Mrs. Ashford," Victoria says, voice shaking slightly. "I need to say something."
"Of course, dear. I—" Margaretstarts.
"Please let me finish." Victoria takes a breath. "I've been trained at Maidenhill to be grateful for arrangements like this. To say yes and smile and be appropriate. My parents told me a match with the Ashford family would be an honor. And it would be. Calder is kind and successful and any omega would be fortunate to…" She stops, swallows hard. "But I can't marry someone who is in love with someone else."
Margaret's face goes very still. "Victoria?—"
"He looks at Elowen the way I want someone to look at me someday. Like she's his whole world. Like he chose her and would choose her again every single day."
Her voice gains strength as she speaks.
"Maidenhill taught me to be perfect. To manage a household and host events and support my alpha's career. But they never asked what I wanted. What I dreamed about." She looks at her folded hands. "I used to read romance novels at night and imagine someone choosing me. Not my family name or my Maidenhill training. Me."
She meets Margaret's eyes directly for the first time.
"I deserve that. So does Calder. So does she." Victoria looks at me. "I'm sorry. I should have spoken up sooner. I just... I didn't know I could."
The silence stretches.
Then Robert Ashford does something unexpected. He smiles. "The girl has a point, Margaret."
Margaret’s expression crumples. "But we arranged?—"
"An arrangement that sounded suitable on paper." Robert shakes his head. "When did we become the people who force unwanted matches?"
Something passes between them, old pain, old memory perhaps.
Victoria steps forward, voice gentle. "I'm grateful you thought of me, Mrs. Ashford. Truly. But please let Calder make his own choice. Let me make mine."
She glances at her phone, and something shifts in her expression, a small, private smile.
"Perhaps we should get back," she says. Calder raises an eyebrow. Victoria's cheeks flush pink. "Thank you," she says to him. "For being honest. I hope I can be as brave."Then she looks at me. Really looks, without envy or judgment. "Take care of him. He's a good person."
"I intend to," I manage. "We all will."
Victoria nods once, then turns to Margaret. "I'd like to go now, if that's alright. I have studying to catch up on."
It's a polite lie. Margaret knows it. But what can she say? "Of course, dear." Margaret's voice sounds hollow. "Robert, would you...?"
"I'll call the car," Robert says.
Victoria walks away with her phone already out, typing rapidly. The small smile returns to her face as she reads a response.
Someone at Maidenhill, I wonder?
