Chapter 6 - FOUR MONTHS IS INSANE
Aiden proposed after three months and two weeks.
Tessa said no.
Not forever.
Immediately.
They were sitting in a twenty-four-hour diner near Northlake because Tessa had finished a night shift and refused to eat anywhere requiring a reservation.
Aiden had not brought a ring.
Good.
He said:
“I want to marry you.”
Tessa stared over pancakes.
“No.”
Aiden blinked.
“Okay.”
That answer surprised her enough to make her suspicious.
“You’re not going to ask why?”
“I assume you have one.”
“I have twelve.”
He almost smiled.
“Okay.”
“Four months is insane.”
“Three months and two weeks.”
“Worse.”
“Yes.”
“You’re thirty-two.”
“Yes.”
“I’m twenty.”
“Yes.”
“You have more money than some towns.”
“Probably.”
“You are facing criminal review.”
“Yes.”
“Your uncle is under investigation for what happened at Cedar House.”
“Yes.”
“My sister may need a kidney transplant.”
“Yes.”
“I have two semesters before my nursing degree.”
“Yes.”
“And you thought marriage was the next logical step?”
“No.”
That stopped her.
Aiden looked at his untouched coffee.
“I thought it was what I wanted.”
Different.
Tessa sat back.
“That is better.”
“Still no?”
“Still no.”
“Okay.”
Good.
They ate pancakes.
No sulking.
No pressure.
Tessa went home.
Then spent four days thinking about why she had not said:
Never.
That was inconvenient.
Angela found her at kitchen table.
“You’re making the face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you’ve decided something terrible is reasonable.”
Tessa stared.
“Aiden asked me to marry him.”
Angela dropped spoon.
“No.”
“That was my answer.”
“Good.”
There.
Tessa glared.
Angela sat.
“Do you love him?”
Tessa hated direct questions.
“Yes.”
“Does that mean marry him?”
“No.”
“Does he pay Lily’s bills?”
“No.”
“Your tuition?”
“No.”
“Rent?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Tessa sighed.
“Everyone.”
Angela continued.
“Does he scare you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Because he might hurt you?”
Tessa thought.
“No.”
“Because of who he is?”
“Yes.”
“That matters.”
“I know.”
“Does he listen?”
“Yes.”
“Does he tell you truth?”
“More now.”
“Does he expect you to fix him?”
“No.”
“Then what is your problem?”
“Four months.”
Angela nodded.
“That is a problem.”
Good.
Not mother magically approves.
Then:
“You can date longer.”
“I know.”
“So do that.”
Tessa intended to.
Then the Cedar House investigation accelerated.
Not because romance.
Mara Quinn’s records and Northlake cyber evidence gave prosecutors enough to subpoena Chambers Foundation records.
Silas challenged.
Lost.
Documents showed:
Victor authorized Cedar House confinement.
Silas approved payments and continued protocol.
Dr. Vale falsified transfer records.
Peter Wren maintained restricted data and, years later, reopened Aiden’s Northlake file at Silas’s request.
Why now?
Financial motive.
Aiden had begun dismantling old criminal routes.
Silas planned to challenge Aiden’s control before family council by portraying him as psychiatrically unstable and “medically compromised.”
The old Adam Chase chart would be leaked selectively.
Not to reveal abuse.
To imply Aiden had been institutionalized for violent instability.
There.
Silas weaponized harm as diagnosis.
Celia advised Aiden:
publicly disclose enough before leak, or risk distorted version.
Aiden hated both.
He chose a third option.
He turned full record over to prosecutors and independent company board under confidentiality.
No press statement.
If Silas leaked, Aiden would correct.
Good.
Then Silas leaked.
Of course.
Tabloid headline:
SEATTLE CRIME BOSS’S SECRET PSYCHIATRIC COMMITMENT REVEALED.
Photograph:
twenty-one-year-old Aiden restrained to bed.
Tessa saw at school.
Everyone did.
Her phone exploded.
Classmates.
Reporters.
Unknown numbers.
One text:
IS HE DANGEROUS TO YOU?
Another:
ARE YOU HIS NURSE OR HIS GIRLFRIEND?
Tessa’s stomach turned.
She did not answer.
Aiden called once.
She declined.
Then texted:
I’M SAFE.
I NEED CLASS.
CALL TONIGHT.
He replied:
UNDERSTOOD.
Good.
No security storm.
At 8:30 p.m., they met at her mother’s apartment.
Angela insisted.
Good.
Aiden sat at kitchen table.
Lily stared from couch.
“So you’re mafia.”
Angela said:
“Lily.”
“What? Everyone knows.”
Aiden answered:
“Yes.”
Lily considered.
“Do you know anyone with O-negative kidney?”
Tessa nearly died.
Aiden looked at Lily.
“I am not allowed to buy you a kidney.”
Lily sighed.
“Tessa rules.”
“Yes.”
Good.
Even Angela laughed.
Then serious.
The leaked photograph had changed public pressure.
Silas’s people spread rumors Tessa was manipulating unstable man.
Others said she was gold digger nurse.
Aiden said:
“I can end public connection.”
Tessa stared.
“What?”
“I can say we stopped seeing each other.”
“Did we?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
Good.
“But attention—”
“Facts.”
He stopped.
Tessa continued.
“You do not break up with me to protect me without asking.”
There.
Ethan lesson? Different story. But fits.
Aiden nodded.
“Right.”
Angela watched.
Good.
Then Tessa asked:
“Would you still marry me if I never moved into your penthouse?”
“Yes.”
“If I keep my job after graduation?”
“Yes.”
“If we sign a prenup written by separate lawyers?”
“Yes.”
“If my money remains mine?”
“Yes.”
“If your criminal liabilities remain yours?”
“Yes.”
“If Lily’s medical care never comes through you?”
“Yes.”
“If I say no to sex on our wedding night?”
Aiden went completely still.
Angela stood.
“I’m going to check Lily.”
Lily shouted:
“I can hear everything!”
Angela dragged her down hallway.
Good.
Tessa stayed.
Aiden’s hands had begun shaking.
“That is not hypothetical for you.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
There.
“Do you want sex?”
Silence.
“Sometimes.”
“Does touch scare you?”
“Yes.”
“Even me?”
“Yes.”
Good.
“Then why marriage?”
Aiden looked at her.
“Because I want a life with you, not access to your body.”
There.
Tessa breathed.
“Better.”
He almost smiled.
Then she said:
“I’m not saying yes tonight.”
“I know.”
Good.
She did not say yes for another two weeks.
During those weeks:
she met independent attorney, Priya Nand.
Read proposed prenup.
Changed it heavily.
Her condo? She doesn't have. She's at family apartment. Separate property perhaps savings, education, future wages. Fine.
No requirement to quit school.
No automatic employment in Chambers businesses.
No medical-decision authority over Lily.
No pressure to relocate beyond mutually chosen residence.
No marital access to nursing-school accounts.
No morality clause.
No pregnancy expectations.
No nondisclosure about abuse or crime.
Priya stared at last one.
“Good.”
Everyone.
Aiden’s lawyer accepted.
One clause he added:
Tessa could retain independent security at his expense only if she chose, with provider not reporting private movements to Aiden except immediate threat.
Tessa thought.
“Reasonable.”
Good.
Then she said yes.
Not during danger.
Not after an attack.
On a Sunday morning at a farmer’s market.
Aiden was holding coffee with his healed right hand.
Tessa said:
“Ask again.”
He froze.
“What?”
“Ask me again.”
His face changed.
“Tessa Bennett, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
Then:
“Four months is still insane.”
“Yes.”
“Long marriage, short engagement.”
He smiled.
“I hope.”
“Do not make it ominous.”
“Sorry.”
He had a ring this time.
Not huge.
She had told him anything larger than one month of her current wages would make her angry.
He cheated slightly.
Two months.
She made him show receipt.
He did.
Good.
Wedding happened at courthouse with family and a small dinner.
No underworld ballroom.
No forced spectacle.
Photographers came anyway.
Aiden Chambers marrying twenty-year-old hospital aide sold papers.
By ten that night, Tessa stood in his forty-second-floor penthouse in a white dress.
Three hours married.
Champagne untouched.
Her hand at zipper.
Aiden six feet away.
His hands shaking.
And the story finally caught up with the first sentence.
“You never have to let me touch you,” he said.
Tessa turned.
Not frightened by what he wanted.
By how terrified he was of wanting anything at all.
Priya Nand also insisted Tessa make a will.
Tessa stared across the attorney’s desk.
“I’m twenty.”
“You have a minor sister you help support, personal accounts, and you are marrying someone whose estate plan probably requires its own zip code.”
Fair.
Tessa made one.
Angela remained her medical proxy if Tessa could not decide.
Not Aiden automatically.
Aiden did the same with his own documents.
He chose Celia Grant and Noah Reed for different legal and emergency roles, not Tessa.
That surprised her.
“Why not me?”
“Because marriage should not make you responsible for dismantling my organization if I’m unconscious.”
Good answer.
Annoyingly.
They also discussed where to live.
Aiden offered penthouse because security was easiest.
Tessa agreed temporarily after wedding, with a written understanding that they would choose a longer-term home together after her semester ended.
No permanent move hidden inside ceremony.
Good.
The practical meetings were exhausting.
They were also the first time Tessa understood marriage could be built from paperwork without becoming unromantic.
Sometimes paperwork was where freedom became visible.
The courthouse ceremony itself lasted fourteen minutes.
Angela cried.
Lily complained the judge spoke too slowly.
Noah looked deeply uncomfortable holding flowers.
Tessa wore a simple white dress she bought herself.
Aiden offered to pay.
She said no.
He said okay.
Good.
When the judge asked whether Tessa entered the marriage freely, she answered yes loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear.
Not because anyone doubted.
Because she wanted the word to belong to her.
Aiden heard that too.
His own yes came quieter.
May you like
No less certain.
Afterward, Tessa kept the courthouse receipt in her wallet for weeks, mostly because the ordinariness of it amused her.
