you were a princess who would rather be anything but a royal; he was the knight her father forced her to marry-a true match made in hell if there ever was one. but, as the wedding inches closer and closer, it seems that, perhaps, your father had fin...
pairing: knight!steven grant x fem!princess!reader x knight!marc spector x knight!jake lockley
series summary: you were a princess who would rather be anything but a royal; he was the knight her father forced her to marry—a true match made in hell if there ever was one. but, as the wedding inches closer and closer, it seems that, perhaps, your father had finally done something right by you.
chapter summary: you begin your work.
word count: 2,926
warnings?: a shorter chapter, brief panic attack, honestly not a very good chapter but sets up for the last leg of the series, pet name (dove), not proofread
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The press had a field day when they found out that you were going to Summer Twilights with Jake. It was almost as big of a deal as when they found out the two of you had foregone an official driver and that Jake had driven you himself. Jake ranted for at least an hour when he saw the headlines. ("It's just ridiculous, dove! They might as well have reported that you sneezed and threw a tissue away! How can this seriously be considered news?") You, however, were not surprised. Even in this day and age, open discussions about mental health were always...well, not welcomed at large. That's not to say it didn't bother you. Of course it did. In your opinion, the media should be focused on the transfer of power, on the well-anticipated trials for Harrow and Benjamin. But, of course, it was often the sillier things that received the most attention.
Still, you were not going to let the attention stop you from continuing to go to Summer Twilights with Jake. It did, however, mean that Layla attended with you to protect you from any potential threats, and that you had to start taking an official driver again. You hated it, but there were some battles you chose to lose if only to maintain your sanity. At least you still got to go. At least that wasn't being taken away from you. So, you grit your teeth and powered forward. Everything would work out in the end.
You sat between William and Dirk in the circle. Emil had said that it was good to not always sit by Jake. Healing was a journey, and it was a journey you should take with the others. There is much to be learned from others who are struggling, too. That way, you don't become codependent on others. You understood Emil's point, but you did miss sitting beside your fiancé. Still, you focused on listening to the others share and be vulnerable with each other.
Being there made you feel better. Even though you didn't share this time, it made you feel like things were going to be fine. Perhaps it was because of the vulnerability of it all. For the last several years, you had so few outlets to express yourself without fear of being punished for it. A life like that had left you with a fair amount of baggage. It was...a relief to be able to finally unpack it all. To be able to sort through it all, to acknowledge the pain it caused you, to just talk about things you were taught to keep hidden—it was everything you could have ever wanted. You could only hope that everyone would have an opportunity, have an outlet, like this.
