Crush (a LUSH novel) by S.L. Baum

Author:S.L. Baum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, scifi, young adult, science fiction, dystopia, teen, ya, dystopian, lush
Publisher: S.L. Baum

*****

Chapter Seven

It Began Twelve Years Ago

When I was just a baby, my father knew that Aspen didn’t love him and he didn’t love her. In fact, sometime before I was conceived, she’d told him that love and affection were characteristics of the weak. They were not things she had ever bargained for when she entered into a Marriage Contract with him. My father had been a completely unattached man, with no family to ever offer a counter opinion, or require a portion of his time or energy. She said he was someone with a pleasant disposition, and it pleased her that he was physically attractive. But most importantly, he was someone that seemed pliable to her, so she pursued him.

In the beginning, when they first met, my father had been awestruck by Aspen’s family connections; she was a 1.15 and her father sat at the head of The Council. She lavished him with attention, seduced him with the extra privileges that came from being attached to the head Councilman’s daughter, and convinced him that their pairing would be the most beneficial and best decision he could ever make. While emotional feelings for one’s mate were never emphasized in Concord Marriage, my father said he had hope. His parents had always seemed to genuinely enjoy each other’s company, from what he could remember of them, and he wished the same for himself and Aspen. But he entered into a Marriage Contract with a woman who, while quite pleasant when things were going her way, would never warm up to him that way.

When Hope came into their lives, my father said he was reluctant to take a Second Wife, because he still wanted to believe that he could have something special with Aspen. But Aspen and her father wanted there to be a child, a child that the Citizens of Concord would be told had been born by Aspen. My father had discovered her true Brand weeks before they were married. But he had promised to keep her secret, he told her that it didn’t matter to him, and he insisted that with or without a child their pairing would be a strong one.

Hope was brought to One because Aspen’s father wanted the family line to continue, Aspen wanted a child to cement her lie into truth – to convince others that she was indeed fertile and had given birth to a child of her own – and my father went along with the plan, eager to please his new family.

My father told himself that he would procreate with this new woman, simply to keep his wife happy. He resisted his feelings for Hope; he told himself that they were merely a byproduct of the physical act they had agreed to perform. But soon after Hope became pregnant with me, and with Aspen growing ever distant, he admitted to himself that he was in love with the woman that was carrying his child. If Aspen had shown him any affection, if she

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