The Twin Who Got The Ring And The One Who Got The Altar Chapter 01
There was a rule in Harlow’s Hollow. Every ten years, one family in the hollow would have twin daughters. One would get married. The other would stay behind and become the Hollow Keeper.
The Keeper never married. And she never set foot outside the hollow.
I got into college early, and I made a promise with my boyfriend–he’d come to propose the year I turned
twenty–two.
When that day finally came, I did my makeup and
waited. Tate Morrison pulled up in a black Range Rover
and parked right in front of my house.
I pushed down the excitement in my chest and
heard him leaning against the car, talking on the phone,
“I’m here to marry Sera.”
“You don’t get it–her parents play favorites. If I
don’t marry Sera, she’s the one who’ll get shipped off.”
“Willa at least got into college. She can make it on
her own. Her parents favor her anyway, so they’re not gonna force her into anything.”
I silently wiped the makeup off my face.
Tomorrow was the Keeper’s Rite.
I sat on the edge of my bed.
My chest felt tight and raw.
When I was little, Sera was the one who said she’d
volunteer to be Keeper, so I could go out and get an education. Because of that promise, I let her have
everything. My parents favored her too. But compared to all of that, freedom mattered more.
I studied like my life depended on it, guilt and gratitude pushing me to squeeze every drop out of my time.
And now she’d used that promise to play the victim with my boyfriend.
She meant it.
never
She planned to stay in this hollow forever.
She just wanted the easy way out.
I sat there, wiping off layers of foundation until the
woman in the vintage vanity mirror slowly became herself again.
There was nothing special about her. Just a regular
face. Regular eyes. Regular nose. Sera and I had the exact same face.
But everyone had always said she was beautiful,
sweet, that she looked just like the Keeper’s portrait in
Granger Hall. They said I was wild, unruly, a disgrace.
Same face.
A car door slammed outside. Footsteps–closer and closer.
Tate was walking over.
I didn’t move. My fingers curled around the cotton
pad, my eyes fixed on that face in the mirror. I made
myself see it as a stranger’s.
A knock at the door.
“Willa.” His voice. “I’m here.”
“Come in,” I said.
He pushed the door open and stopped short. He hadn’t expected me to be bare–faced, hadn’t expected
me to be sitting there in an old shirt instead of the dress I’d laid out.
“You…” He stepped inside. “Why aren’t you changed?”
I looked at him. “What are you here for?”
He blinked, then forced a smile and came closer.
“To pick you up. That was the plan, right? Twenty–two.
I come propose.”
“Propose to who?”
He froze.
I held his gaze. “Tate. I’m asking you–who are you proposing to?”
His smile faded slowly.
A few seconds of silence. “Willa, let me explain-”
“Don’t bother.” I stood up and set the cotton pad on the table. “I heard everything you said on the phone.”
His face went pale.
“You said Sera didn’t get into college and can’t leave, so you’re marrying her. You said I have a degree and can make it on my own, so I don’t matter.”
“Willa-”
“So you weighed the two of us, decided I wasn’t
the one worth feeling sorry for, and came here to walk away with her?”
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
I knew it. He couldn’t deny it, because it was the truth.
Tate and I had known each other five years, dated
for three. He’d met Sera maybe ten times. But he still
did the math–me on one side, her on the other. And he
figured I could handle myself, so I didn’t need saving.
“Tate.” I stepped back. “Leave.”
His brows pulled together. “Just calm down. I had my reasons
“I’m calm.” I said. “Calmer than you think.”
He stared at me like he wanted to say more, but he couldn’t find the words.
Footsteps outside, then Sera’s voice, soft and quivery,
“Willa, I know you’re upset, but you don’t understand, I really-”
She pushed the door open and stood there, eyes red, tears clinging to her lashes.
She looked beautiful when she cried. She always
had. Everyone’s heart went out to her. Even mine used to.
But now, I just looked at her and said, “Sera. You
don’t owe me an explanation.”
She blinked. “Willa…”
“I’m not mad at you.” I said. “I was just stupid
enough to think our promise meant something.”
That was for Tate too. And for her.
A beat of silence.
Then I grabbed my phone off the nightstand. “I’m
going to Granger Hall. You two stay.”
“Wait.” Tate followed. “Why are you going there?”
I didn’t turn around.
“To tell Elder Granger,” I said, “that I’m taking part in tomorrow’s Keeper’s Rite.”