I Chose Novels & Stories

And here it was, at the bottom of the world, held up by the one person who had bled to keep it mine. So I chose. "Yes," I said. "And not because fate says so, not because the law says so, not because a war is coming or a crown is heavy or a child sparked a mark before I was ready. Yes because I looked at every road there was, and every man who wanted me, and every claim ever laid on me, and I want you. Freely. Knowing the cost. Choosing it anyway." My voice broke on the last of it. "I choose you, Hunter Grear. Stand up. Stand beside me."

I took a breath. Then another. What do I want? That was the question buried under all this noise. Kai was familiar. Safe in a messy way. Nikolai was confusing. Dangerous. Pulling me into something I still didn’t understand. And somehow both of them were looking at me like I was the final decision. I hated that. I loved that a little. I hated that too. “I’m choosing,” I said firmly. Silence fell instantly. Good. I looked at Kai. “Thank you for caring.”

No thank you. I would choose option C, neither of the above. I would choose myself, just like I had been doing for years now. I didn’t need a male at my side for validation or worth. I could have it all, on my own terms, without having to answer to anyone else. Make my own way with no male holding me down or back.

Make your choice. I looked at Marcus. At Santos. At the chaos on the screens. At the trapped women in the photos. Then I made my choice. "I'm going alone.”

Only this. Only him. Only the life I’d just stepped into fully— knowing I had chosen it once… and would choose it again.

The kind that has no dignity and doesn’t ask for any. The kind that means something got in. Something got all the way in. And now it was gone. And the worst part — the part that hurt underneath all the other parts — was that I had let it. I had stood at the door and argued with myself and then opened it anyway. With full knowledge. With both eyes open. You chose, I had said to him. Then choose, he had said back. I had chosen. And this was what choosing looked like in my life.

It was short but I could feel the weight of how she felt when she wrote it. "I don't want the time to come that you'll choose. I don't want to be slapped with the truth that you choose her over me. So, I am choosing myself."

“I love you. I just want you to know that. I love you so, so much.” I grinned and leaned over to kiss him. “I love you, too.” “I know that I've been a little nervous with the baby coming,” he admitted. “But, it's just that I love you. That you chose me.” I grinned at him. “I choose you,” I said. “Every day, I choose you.”

Only then did it hit me—after all these years, I was still the invisible person that nobody bothered to care for when sick. Grief tore through me. I cried until my body shook and my breath came in short gasps. When I finally stopped, I called my professor, a world-renowned doctor. "Professor Lakeworth, I've decided. I'll leave for Orzelia in three days to further my studies. I'll never return here." … I quickly arranged to be discharged from the hospital after a day of recovery. I wanted to wrap things up and get out of this hellhole as soon as possible.

I added quietly, “I’ll be out of your way soon. For good. Get it yet?” I turned away before I could see there reactions. Because he, they, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t chasing him. I was chosen. By me. By my hard work. By the Academy.