He Faked A Limp For Six Years To Avoid Marrying Me Chapter 10

Gone was her usual soft, delicate, tearful demeanor. She stumbled forward with messy, unbrushed hair, screaming wild accusations loud enough for every guest to hear.

“You’ve ruined my reputation completely, Talen! Everyone in Hollow Creek knows we were supposed to wed today—no other man will ever take me as a bride now!”

Talen’s face paled with alarm.

“What insane lies are you shouting for the whole clan to hear?”

I let a short, mocking huff escape my lips. For once, I fully believed every word Elowen screamed.

She spun toward me the second she caught the sound of my laugh, a small steel kitchen scissors clutched tight in her fist, rage burning hot in her eyes.

“You’re laughing at my ruin, aren’t you? You’re thrilled this wedding fell apart for me!”

“If I can’t marry the man I love, you won’t get your perfect wedding either!”

She charged forward, blade raised to lunge at my chest.

Jasper reacted faster than anyone else, snatching the kitchen scissors out of her grasp and flinging them far into the surrounding grass. Elowen lost her balance and crashed hard onto the dirt ground.

“Enough of this reckless chaos,” he snapped down at her.

Maren’s brows furrowed deep with unmasked distaste.

“Why did you follow us all the way to Ironvein lands? We told you to stay behind in Hollow Creek.”

Elias stared at the fallen woman with complete revulsion.

“I ordered you to stay confined to our hollow grounds—who snuck you past our border guards to ride over here?”

Elowen threw her head back and laughed sharp, bitter laughter that cut through the quiet wedding air.

“Now you all see how wonderful Shay is, and you’re ready to toss me aside like broken trash, aren’t you?”

“Do you forget every cruel, unfair thing you did to her just to keep me smiling all these years? You beg her to stay now, but will she ever forgive any of you for the pain you caused?”

Her words struck every Hollow Creek clansman silent, every accusation fully true.

Talen rushed forward and clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle her screaming tirade. Maren stepped up and struck her hard across the cheek. Elias turned his head away, unwilling to look at her any longer.

“Lock her inside the Cold Trough Pen until she’s calmed down enough to be escorted back to Hollow Creek,” Elias ordered flatly.

I still remembered being thrown into that same cold water pen years prior, all because I’d accidentally shoved Elowen during an argument. The pen swarmed with harmless water snakes and crawling bugs, creatures the delicate city girl could never endure for long.

Elowen screamed and fought against the clansmen dragging her toward the holding pen, begging for mercy, but they hauled her away without pause.

The ugly spectacle finally ended.

“Clear all Hollow Creek clansfolk off the wedding grounds,” I told Kael quietly.

That group included Talen, Elias, Maren, Jasper, Mabel, and every person who’d traveled from my old hollow to disrupt our rite. They refused to leave at first.

I faced them all, voice clear and unwavering.

“You nearly destroyed the wedding I’ve waited years to have today. You ruined every piece of my happiness back in Hollow Creek. Will you also strip away the last scrap of dignity I hold on my wedding day?”

Those words finally broke their stubborn resistance. They stepped back slowly, every face tangled with overlapping waves of guilt, resentment, and sorrow.

I turned my back on them entirely, taking one solid step forward to sever all old ties for good. I walked straight toward Kael, into the bright, unburdened future our Ironvein wedding promised me.

No suffocating old clan rules chained me here. No biased elders played favorites with outsiders. No mandatory wild boar feasts I’d grown to hate.

This was my new beginning, free from every wound Hollow Creek Clan left carved into my heart.