Page 96 of Between Now & Heartbreak

“That’s the last thing I need, let’s go inside,” she grumbles and turns to walk inside. She’s just pulled the door open again when I grab her arm.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine. You’re letting all the cool air out and the mosquitoes in,” she snaps and runs a hand roughly through her hair. Her eyes fix on a spot over my shoulder. She bites her lip and fidgets uncomfortably.

I cup her chin and tug until she looks at me.

The Adriatic blue is swirling with hurt and something else I don’t understand. The normally bright whites are pink and glassy with the ghost of tears and the promise of more to come.

“Talk to me. We can tell each other anything. Nothing will change.” I promise and I mean it.

She nods and then swallows hard. “When I was at my grandmother’s, I thought about you so much. It’s when I started drawing you. I held on to the memory of that night because it was special to me.”

“I know. It was special to me, too.”

Instead of the smile my words should inspire, her lips tremble and she presses them together and looks away from me.

I cup her shoulders and turn her back to me.

“Whatever is wrong, it’s okay.” I say hoping she believes me.

She shakes her head.

“I spent my whole life knowing that if they’d had a choice, for my parents, I wouldn’t have been it.”

“Why do you think that?”

“My father wanted sons. He had two. Phil, who spat in his face and disappeared. James was his…whole world. And all that’s left is me and my little sister. If my brothers were still here, everything would be very different. When my father found out about you, he lost it. And he sent me to grandmother’s so she could mold me. Into someone a man he would choose would like.”

“What? I don’t understand.” I say dumbly, not able to give what she’s saying context.

“I have an inheritance. It’s a lot. And he wants Wolfe to stay in the family. I couldn’t run it so he wanted to pick someone who could.”

The horror that’s filling me must show on my face.

“I was desperate, Carter I saw a way out. Not just for me, but for my sister And I took it. If I was married, I could take that money and run. I just had to find someone my father approved of.”

My blood runs cold as I understand what she’s saying.

“You were going to marry Duke because your father approves of him?” I ask, unable to comprehend the words even as I say them.

She nods.

“Does he know?” I ask, hoping that she’ll say yes. I don’t want to believe that she would mislead him like that even if she was desperate.

“Yes. We made an agreement. We were going to split the money.” I sit, shell shocked while she tells me about her time with her grandmother.

The story is out of a horror film. These people are monsters and I don’t even know how she was able to get herself out of that and not be bitter and fucked up.

“But…you’re not actually going tomarryhim.” I say when she finishes her story.

She shakes her head sharply.

“No.”

“Will he be okay with that?”

“No. But, he can’t force me.”

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