She'd dried her tears while being amazed by River's endless positivity again, but his hope for a happy end was contagious and had led her here, standing before Jason's door. He had a room in the other tower of the castle and, tiptoeing there, she sneaked in.

"Jason," she whispered.

He came walking out of the bathroom. "Emily?" he asked in his normal volume. "What are you doing here?" His eyes widened when he saw she had her wedding dress on. "And you have your wedding dress on!" he exclaimed.

Emily sighed. "Yes, I know, bad luck." She rolled her eyes. "I've got more important things on my mind now than superstitious beliefs."

"Is something wrong?" he asked her.

Emily closed the door behind her and sat down on his bed. There was no use in denying it. "Yes," she said, "something's wrong."

Hearing this made Jason stop worrying about tying this navy blue tie. Instead, he sat down on a chair opposite her. "Tell me," he said, and he looked genuinely worried with wrinkles on his forehead and his mouth in a straight line.

"I haven't told you everything," she began slowly, and she found it hard to find the right words on telling him the truth. Wasn't this cheating in a weird sense, being in love with someone else while at the moment of walking down the aisle?

"Everything about what?" he inquired. He folded his hands together and rested his elbows on his knees, listening to every word she said—and she loved it. He cared about her and her well-being and was curious to know more about her, and if something was wrong, he wanted to fix it. Jason was nice, but she never learned to appreciate it until now.

And yet, here she was to tell him they wouldn't work out.

"I..." she said, and her mind began filling up with doubts again. Was she really about to give up a marriage for River, a guy she hardly knew? She didn't have any plans of marrying him! And yet she was about to give everything up for him and something that may be. "I don't want to... marry—you."

She'd let the words out slowly, letting every one of them sink in. At the same time, she didn't want to be too forward; what if she hurt him?

With that came another worry: what if she'd interpreted everything wrong? Yes, the idea of the wedding had been their parents', but he'd never said no. Maybe he did want to marry her and she'd missed all the signs leading up to this point somehow.

He narrowed his eyes. "What?"

She repeated it. "I don't want to marry you." Saying it for the second time came a lot easier.

He chuckled. "You're a bit late for that, don't you think?" he said. He leaned back in his chair and he almost seemed relieved, as if he didn't take her seriously.

"This is not a joke!" she said. "The thing is, I..." The words had escaped her mouth before she even realized she was about to tell Jason she was in love with someone else, but now that they had, there was no way out. "I love someone else."

This caused his eyebrows to raise. "Someone else?" he questioned. "Love?"

"You don't know him," Emily said quickly. "But I met him a few months ago, before all of this happened, and he's here today too."

"You invited him to our wedding?" His tone spoke of disbelief.

"I didn't mean to," she said, "and technically I haven't. It's a long story, but he's here now."

He shook his head and closed his eyes, letting everything sink in. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" he said then.

She didn't know the answer to that either. "It's more complicated than that."

He pressed his lips together. "Well, you might as well tell me the whole story if you want to give up this wedding for him."

She knew he was right. This was not just about her and the big choice she had to make, or about River. She was changing everything for Jason too—which made the choice only harder. He'd worked hard and he'd been nothing but kind to her. Without him, she probably would still be locked in a cold, dark basement and never have escaped.

So, as he'd asked her to, she told him everything. About her escape to Miami, about meeting River the last day she was there, about her leaving again and them never talking until this day. How seeing him again caused her to feel all these feelings that she didn't know how to name or what to do with them.

"That's..." he said when she'd finished telling her story. "That's a lot."

She sighed. "I know."

He didn't look at her, but was staring at the ground instead. "What now?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know." That was the whole problem—she didn't know what to do. "I don't know what we can do or if it's already too late to do anything at all."

He shook his head. "It's never too late." They were the same words he'd said when they'd spent those three years in the basement together. He'd wanted to escape while she thought it was hopeless, but because he'd believed they could, she trusted him and tried again, and again, and again, until they got out.

And maybe there was a way out of this too.

*

"What do you think?" she asked Jason then.

"Think of what?"

"Of this," she said, throwing up her hands. "Canceling a wedding at the last minute. Putting a stop to everything others have worked so hard for."

He didn't look her in the eyes, but stared just past her when he said, "I... don't know yet."

"Well, you kind of have to know something," she said. "I don't want to make this decision without you, Jason."

He raised his eyebrows. "You want my advice?"

She nodded.

He straightened his back and put his elbows on the arm rests of his chair. "I'm not sure if this is the right choice."

"The canceling or the wedding?"

"Canceling," he said. "How well do you know this guy, Emily? You said you met him in Miami months ago. He has changed, just like you have in that same time period. And it's not like you plan on marrying him, right? Maybe it's just a crush and you can't just throw this whole wedding away for a crush."

"But this isn't it for me, either, Jason," she said, standing up from the bed and walking around. "Look at this—this dress, this wedding, this castle..." She shook her head as she realized again what she'd gotten herself into. She felt locked inside this tower because the moment she walked out, people were expecting her to do something, and preferably marry this guy before her she'd known all her life. "And the media are here too—why are they here? I didn't ask for them!"

"That was my dad's idea." He attempted to calm her. "To get some positive press for the businesses and the merger. This marriage is to save the companies, after all, and we could use all the positive attention we can get after all that's happened."

"It just—It just doesn't feel like this is my wedding," she said quietly. "This is not how I imagined it. I wanted something small, with just family and friends. Preferably a beach wedding."

"Is that why you said you wanted to get married in Miami?" Jason asked, remembering the first gathering they'd had with the wedding planner before Emily's and Jason's mothers had cut in and decided to do everything themselves. "So we could get married on the beach?" Then, an even scarier thought came to mind. "Or was it to have a last chance to see that guy again—River was his name?" And under his breath, he mumbled, "Who names his kid after a river—and not even a well-known river, but just every river out there?" He shook his head and rolled his eyes, but Emily decided to ignore his comment. More important matters were at hand.

"That was a mistake," she said. "And I know that now, but nothing I can do about it. This wedding, however..."

He stood up too. "Well, what do you want me to do?" he said.

She held her hand against her forehead as she tried to think, but her mind was a mess. "I want you to..." She closed her eyes. An answer she didn't have, just like she couldn't answer all her own questions. I just don't know. It was the only certain thing: she didn't know anything. "I want you to say you don't want this either."

"And cancel the wedding?" he asked. "That's what you're asking of me?"

She nodded.

"How can you even ask me that?"

"Do you even remember why we're doing this in the first place?" she asked. "I can't even remember you proposing to me! We can't go this far just to save a business."

"It's the business I'll be taking over," he said. "One that will provide me a living—that will provide us a living. And marrying each other has never been a big deal, so why is it now?"

She let out a defeated sigh and raised her voice. "It's marriage, Jason—as in, we have to be together for the rest of our lives! And I'm not saying I hate you, but this is too much to ask of me—especially when River's in the picture!"

Silence reigned in the room while Jason thought for a second, the last words Emily said echoing in their minds. "You like him, don't you?" he asked her then.

She didn't have to think about her answer. "A lot," she said, and she couldn't withhold her smile. Just thinking of him, she felt this calmness and warm feeling and she couldn't imagine it ever being different.

Jason walked towards the window and stared outside, and if there was a moment in her life that Emily could find out what he was thinking, it would be this one. She could not predict what would happen at all and had no control over the situation. It was all in his hands.

"Let's just say that..." he mused. "That we decide to cancel this wedding, marriage—you know, everything." He let a silence fall and Emily joined him before the window, following his eyes that were tracing the flight of a bird flying in the clear blue sky. "What do we say? To the people."

She hadn't even thought that far ahead. "I don't know," she said, and it felt silly saying it, but she didn't have any real answers for him.

"Then I don't know how to answer you," he said. He turned to look at her and she realized how close they were standing to each other, but she was unable to move away from him while she looked into his eyes. They seemed to have mixed emotions and she was unable to read them, but he was probably as conflicted as she was.

"I just... need a moment to think," he said then, and Emily understood he needed to be alone; she wished she could give him all the moments he needed.

However, time was merciless and a decision had to be made.

* * *

So, what are we thinking of the story so far? Only three chapters left after this!