I Do

"Just say it," you silently reminded yourself. You knew you'd regret it if you didn't. 

"I do." 

Or maybe you'd regret it if you did. 

Charles was always good to you from the moment you met him. He held the door open, he paid for meals when you went on dates. Why, on the day he'd asked to marry you he brought you so many gifts you almost couldn't handle it. He was perfect, or so you thought. 

Charles wasn't really named Charles. His name was Edward Mistle and he didn't care one bit about your feelings. He told you this straight to your face one week before the wedding. Instead of gifts Edward brought tears. 

You couldn't be sure what his intentions were for leading you on like he did. It didn't really make sense. He had always shown love before, why was he changing his mind now!?

Your mind muddled over these thoughts until there was a secret agent on your doorstep asking for him. After you invited him in you saw Edward sitting outside your living room window. In your shock you didn't point him out to the agent and it's a good thing too. Edward had a gun pointed directly at you a moment after you noticed him. Afraid to anger the man with the gun you did absolutely nothing. 

After over an hour of the agents questions getting nowhere, due to your lack of doing anything, he left. Edward immediately came inside the house and threatened you into his basement with a gun. He called you names, he spat on you. He said he never loved you. He said he was a bad man who could do bad things to little girls who tattled on him. 

Perhaps this was why he led you on, he was a bad man who wanted to hide. You plan to run or do anything to be away from him once you can be sure he's left the building. 

Unfortunately for Edward, the agent had known something was up and stayed around, watching from an overhead window. He saw your ordeal and dug into the basement discretely from your side yard. 

You cried to this agent, admitting everything that had happened. You tell him you feel stupid and hurt. You say you should have seen it coming. Life has always been easy for you and you never assumed any gentleman could be so ungentle. You cry at the thought of your upcoming wedding. 

The agent informed you that he was sent there to catch Edward. He tells you that Edward has gone around the world looking for naive women to convince them into getting married. He makes sure he gets to plan most of the wedding, but only if the girls family paid for it. You are struck by the fact that that had indeed happened to you. 

 The agent continued to inform you that Edward was not actually paying for anything he had "planned" for the wedding with your family's money, but was putting it into a personal bank account. Then he turned cruel on the woman until she called off the wedding and he escaped. 

How had this happened to you? Why would anyone pick you out from a crowd of other rich girls? How had he convinced you that he was good enough to marry when he was nearly bad enough to murder?

You realize that he can only keep doing this until he actually gets married. You invite the agent to the wedding on friday. 

The entire day before the wedding you cry in your room, unwilling to see the family you love again before you have to leave them for a player. By nightfall, however, your tears are gone and you emerge from your fear with a resolution in your jaw. 

At the wedding you walk up to the altar, ready to protect all other women from a man like him. Everything at the wedding is a cheap, last minute, distressed grab for a final battle. The reputation of the dirty groom would not be soiled by his unwillingness to marry you. 

You look up at the terrible figure across from you. It's like playing chicken, you hope that he breaks and calls off the wedding because you know that you refuse to break. No matter how naive Edward thought you were at the beginning of this courtship, he was about to see a woman defeat him and his purpose. 

The priest approached the altar. You took a deep breath and steeled your nerves against the temptation to run. 

"Just say it," you silently reminded yourself. You knew you'd regret it if you didn't. 

"I do." 

Suddenly you felt a sharp pain in your leg. You look down at the knife and follow its hilt to the arm holding it and up to Edwards enraged face. The crazed haze in his eyes give you the satisfaction of knowing that you singlehandedly broke a man so unbreakable that he broke others for fun. Then you feel the blood and pain of the knife in your leg and cry out. 

Your scream mixes with Edward as he stabs you again, this time a more deadly stroke towards your heart. You close your eyes in the moment and imagine what death will be like. 

Time slows down and when you open your eyes again you are laying on a cot. Your parents eyes are filled with tears and hope as they look down at you. You turn your head and find the agent standing on the other side. 

Before you can ask the question, the agent explains that before Edward could make contact with his second stab you fainted out of the way. This gave the agent a clear shot to take Edward down. You have brought down a bad man because you're not a little girl who tattles, you are a woman who fights. 

You let yourself fall asleep as you go to the hospital, but your last thought before you close your eyes is one of peace. Everything worked out and you only have a stabbed leg and a growth of confidence to show for it.