Virtuous Vows Book Novels & Stories

From the corner of my eyes, my father watched me nervously, his smile faltering at the fear of what I might be thinking. I never imagined faking an answer to a question like this. To spend a lifetime built on false vows and promises. This is not something I wanted for myself or my children. “I do,” The words tasted bitter as they rolled out of my tongue. Instinctively, I slipped the ring onto his finger without being prompted. The priest took another ring and handed it to the man. I gently removed my glove, revealing my sweaty tender fingers. I sucked in my breath as he reached for my hand, fighting the urge to pull back. After that ring slips in, I will be bound to this man.

He assured me. I turned to look at him, and his side profile was haloed by a faint light, which highlighted his features, appearing handsome and somewhat aloof. "Society has never cared about who you are, but who the person conferring your social status is. You'll come to experience how harsh society can be towards the weak and how humble towards the strong." "Uh-huh." He wasn't wrong. I had been too naive, always believing good to be greater than evil. Now, I am facing the consequences. This world doesn't believe in the longevity of kindness. It's all about self-interest.

Each gave a vow. “To protect.” “To forgive.” “To remember.” When it was Arthur’s turn, he stepped forward, voice clear and unwavering. "I vow to guard this covenant not only with strength, but with humility. To protect the flame not as a symbol of dominance, but of guidance." Isabella followed. Her hand touched the scroll, eyes fierce. "I vow to raise the voices long silenced. To open every chamber hidden in shadow. To light every corner with truth." And finally, Catherine. “I vow to lead not from behind curtains, but among the people. Not with power, but with purpose.”

But I let it go. The vows are a lot. In a good way. Emotional, a little awkward at times (Adrian stumbles over his words at one point and Christine laughs mid vow, which honestly makes it better), but real. And somewhere in the middle of it, I realize something. Again. That has been at the back of my mind but it’s more clearer. I’m not scared like I used to be. Or maybe I am but it doesn’t control me anymore. The reception is louder.

I lost the illusion that I could control the terms of my own suffering. And from that moment forward, my vow became real. Not to him. But to myself. I would never let this be my ending.

I'd rather have you here with clear boundaries than continue as we have been, with you constantly questioning whether refusal is safe. Sienna felt tears threatening again, but these were different. Not devastation, but something closer to relief mixed with disbelief. "You're really promising this? Not as manipulation, not as temporary concession but as permanent change?" "I'm vowing it," Luca clarified. "In my world, vows matter. They're not casual promises but binding commitments. I'm vowing not to touch you without consent, and I'll honor that vow regardless of desire, regardless of opportunity, regardless of how much I want to break it."

But Damien just smiled. "Miss Vale, we're all adults here. Everyone has their own moral boundaries. I don't care who Serena has feelings for in her heart. Since she married me, she's my wife. As long as I don't see her doing anything inappropriate with my own eyes, I choose to trust her. Besides, we're all adults and having someone in your heart is quite normal, isn't it? Like you, Miss Vame, haven't you ever had feelings for someone else? It's the same thing. Women like looking at men and men like looking at women. As long as it doesn't cross the moral line, I'm fine with it..." Katrina couldn't believe it. Damien actually talked about having moral boundaries, could someone who often fooled

Vision. I saw a traitor. A human hand—my father’s hand—passing a map of the Vane House wards to a hooded figure. “Take the girl,” my father’s voice whispered in the vision. “Dante will be distracted by the Council. Just get her out. She’s the only one who can open the seal.”

Antoine tells the room generally, which produces a warm ripple of laughter that breaks the formality exactly correctly, and Vincent laughs through whatever he was doing with his face and looks at me and takes a breath and says his vows. He says them steadily and specifically and without looking at the paper because he also wrote them from the heart, and they are about freedom and patience and the specific education of watching someone choose themselves into fullness and being changed by it, and they are the truest things I have heard him say, and that is considerable because he has said many true things across fourteen months. When the rings go on, I feel Clara move, a sharp definitive flutt

“God…. Ethan….fuck me “ I said, the words were like a desperate prayer. I grabbed his shoulder and digged my fingers in his chest as I moaned. The sound was not a performance. It was a cry from the deepest part of me, a part of me that had been buried alive for years. Yes this wasn't part of the mission but it was still it. The initial plan had been a slow, calculated seduction, a long, drawn out game of cat and mouse. This… this was a train wreck. But it was still a part of it because I'm on to make the Malcovichs pay, whatever it will take, I don't mind. I had to let him in. I had to let him touch me, to feel me, to possess me. Because in the end, I would be the one to take everything from