If I can't be everything to you.....you will be nothin to me

she has that guy whipped

“Oh, wow!” she smiled to herself as Gordon and Brown fawned over her extended hand, where her engagement ring sat glimmering under the easy light of Wayne Manor.

Brown took her hand delicately, laughably like she was fragile, but she knew it was with care for the blue diamond she’d found herself inexplicably drawn to. “This is crazy, you have this guy whipped !”

“It’s nothing special.”

Gordon glanced up at her from where her hand extended, raising an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t say that. This boy really likes you, Dahlia .”

  Gordon wasn’t even supposed to be here, should have been back at her apartment going over her latest case-- but no, she had questions , had to ask Father about the wedding and the party and about flowers and food and everything else, because apparently, he’d put Gordon in charge of all of that.

Whatever, she was thankful her father hadn’t passed the responsibility back to her, or his tasteless wards-- more specifically, Grayson or Drake.

They’d have wanted to work more closely with the dupain-chengs , but Gordon worked better alone, and her new family felt the same way-- she’d gathered.

She and marcel hadn’t had to lift a finger, except to put the rings on.

She scoffed. “He wants to get into my pants, that’s different.”

Brown blinked, then threw her head back and laughed, shaking her head all the while. “Dahlia , you clearly haven’t dated a lot of guys. They’re all like that.”

Gordon nodded in agreement, small smile inching over the corner of her face. She was more critical, raising an eyebrow in defiance, because that couldn’t have been true, even if she hadn’t dated… a lot of guys.

“Even Drake?”

“Oh,” Brown grinned, hands at her hips, looking like a cat with a cream-filled lip, “... especially Tim.”

Dahlia was disgusted by this . Who knew what drake did or not do  for that . she shuddered at the thought .

Gordon elbowed Brown, who smiled with a not-at-all-sorry sheepish smile. Gordon turned to her, then, and she crossed his arms.

A lecture was coming, he could feel it. She leveled him behind her glasses, like a teacher smacking a ruler in one open palm.

“Do I have to remind you that you are marrying him, Dahlia? It only makes sense he wants you to like him.”

He frowned, because of course he knew that, but…

“He knows I can’t give him that.”

Gordon and Brown glanced at each other, faces indecipherable because he dared not read them.

It was Brown who spoke next, all trace of that playfulness she’d had in her eyes gone, and he could tell Drake wasn’t the first thing on her mind anymore right then, and he wasn’t sure what was.

“Dahlia … are you sure you want to marry this guy? If you don’t love him…”

That didn’t matter. What mattered was that the dupain-chengs  wanted her, that marcel  wanted her.

Even if she’d never love the man, she could appreciate him. She’d be happy in his arms, happy as a dupain cheng .

She wasn’t looking to fall in love again, wasn’t sure if she even could, didn’t think she could.

That level of intimacy, that kind of pain; she could never withstand it again. How her mother loved his father for years and years with no reciprocation, she couldn’t fathom.

That pain of being helplessly in love, not being loved in turn-- it still killed her silently every single day.

(She guessed that might have been what she was doing to marcel , but marcel  had accepted that, hadn’t he? She’d told him from the start that she’d never fall in love with him. She knew, he knew that she was incapable of being anything more than his wife. So it was not her fault, she knew the risks.) “I must.”

“But--!” Gordon sighed while Brown opened her arms, bowing up on nothing. “You said it yourself, you don’t have to, it’s an arrangement your mom made years ago!”

“I’m not doing this because I’ve been ordered to.”

“Then why?” It was Gordon who spoke that time, not accusing, not demanding-- merely curious .

Scientific, calculating as she ever was. Still, she was loved. By Batman, by every Robin, by the city and its officers, by her father who adored her no matter what. He grimaced.

“It’s what’s best for everyone, including me.”

And she turned on her heel, and she left, because that’s all there was to it.

(She didn’t see the looks Barbara and Stephanie exchanged, the concern in their eyes as they watched her turn her back with that blue diamond ring on her finger.)

807 Words
Another chapter here you go folks I am updating now because we are heading to final exams and I might not be able to update at all .

Arrevedercci 😂