Chapter 43 Final Decision
Vivienne's POV
I pulled away from him slightly, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.
"You don't understand what she's like, Raphael. You saw her today, but that's just the beginning. She's just getting started."
"Then tell me," he said softly. "Help me understand."
I took a shaky breath and stood up, walking over to the window. I could still see the spot where Margot's car had been parked, like it had left a mark on the driveway.
"When I was younger, maybe fourteen or fifteen, I had this friend named Sarah," I started, my voice quiet. "She was my best friend. We did everything together. But Margot didn't like her. Said she was a bad influence, that her family wasn't good enough."
Raphael stayed quiet, listening.
"So Margot called Sarah's parents and told them I had been caught shoplifting. She said she was trying to protect their daughter from my bad behavior. It was a complete lie, but Sarah's parents believed her.
They forbade Sarah from seeing me. At school, Sarah wouldn't even look at me. She thought I was a thief and a liar."
"Vivienne," Raphael breathed out, and I could hear the anger in his voice.
"That's what she does," I continued, turning to face him. "She doesn't just threaten. She acts. She finds ways to isolate people, to turn them against each other. And she's good at it. Really good at it."
I walked back over to the couch and sat down, feeling exhausted suddenly. "After my Mom died, it got worse. She started controlling everything. Who I could see, where I could go, what I could study.
She made it seem like she was just being protective, like she was trying to help me through my grief. But really, she was just making sure I had no one but her."
"How did you get away from her?" Raphael asked.
"I didn't really," I admitted. "Not completely. I went to college, but it was the college she chose. I studied business because that's what she wanted.
I lived in the apartment she made my dad pay for. Even when I wasn't living under the same roof with her, she was still controlling everything."
"And now?"
"Now I'm here with you, and it's the first real choice I've made in years. The first thing I've done that's truly mine. And she can't stand it."
Raphael moved closer to me on the couch.
"I get why you're scared. I do. But Vivienne, running to get married tomorrow isn't going to solve this. She'll just find another way to come at us."
"But at least we'll be married," I argued. "At least there will be legal protection. She won't be able to claim she has any say over what I do."
"You're already an adult. She doesn't have any say over what you do now."
"You don't know her like I do," I said, frustrated that he wasn't understanding.
"Legal doesn't matter to Margot. She finds ways around things. She has lawyers who can make anything look legitimate. She has friends in high places who owe her favors."
“But she had wanted you to get married so badly?”
“Yes, but not on my terms.”
Raphael was quiet for a moment, thinking. "What if we do something in between?"
"What do you mean?"
"What if we don't wait for months, but we also don't rush to city hall tomorrow? What if we plan a small ceremony, just us and a few witnesses, for next week or the week after?
That gives us time to do it properly, but it also doesn't leave you feeling vulnerable for too long."
I considered this. It wasn't what I wanted, not exactly. I wanted to be married to him right now, this second, so that Margot couldn't touch us. But I could see his point. If we rushed it too much, if we let fear drive every decision, then Margot would still be controlling me. Just in a different way.
"Okay," I said slowly. "Next week. But we have to be serious about it. We have to actually plan it and make it happen."
"I promise," he said, taking both of my hands in his. "One week from today. We'll get married right here, in the garden like you wanted. Small and simple, just the people who matter most."
I nodded, feeling some of the tension leave my body. It wasn't perfect, but it was a plan. And having a plan made me feel less helpless.
"There's something else we need to do," I said, a new thought occurring to me.
"What's that?"
"We need to be prepared for whatever she's planning. She didn't come here today just to drop off soup and make vague threats. She was testing us, seeing how we'd react. And now she knows we're serious about each other, which means she's going to escalate."
"What do you think she'll do?" Raphael asked, his jaw tightening.
"I don't know exactly. But with Margot, it's always about image and control. She'll try to make me look bad somehow, or make you look bad. She'll spread rumors, maybe. Or she'll try to come between us by making one of us doubt the other."
"That won't work," Raphael said firmly.
"I know. But she doesn't know that. She thinks everyone can be manipulated the way she manipulates people."
I stood up again, pacing now. My mind was racing with possibilities, with all the different ways Margot might try to destroy what Raphael and I had built.
"We should probably tell people," I said suddenly. "Your family, your close friends. We should tell them what's happening so that if Margot tries to spread lies, they'll already know the truth."
"That's a good idea," Raphael agreed. "My cousin will want to help. And Marcus, my best friend. They both know what you mean to me."
"And we should document everything," I added, the ideas coming faster now.
"Every time she shows up, every threat she makes, every lie she tells. We should write it all down, maybe even record it if we can."