Page 2 of Twisted Hearts

Dad turned to me with regret sparking in his green eyes. He blinked slowly, and his shoulders slumped forward. “Adrianna…”

This fight was worthless. They could try to force me to do anything they wanted, and hell, Daniel had done enough of it. Nothing would come from more verbal sparring.

I was trapped, for now. While my head might have been spinning at the threats issued toward my father, at the way my dad begged, I wasn’t afraid.

For the first time in my miserable, protected life, I was feeling alive. Brave. Strong.

I clung to those thoughts, because it seemed I was going to need this newfound strength.

“Fine.” It wasn’t the four-letter word I wanted to use, but I still spit it out like a curse.

Daniel stepped forward then and curled his hands arounds my shoulders. My spine went rigid as he pulled me from my mom’s hold toward him. Like he knew exactly where they were, his fingertips pressed against the bruises he’d left on my arms only days ago, and I fought against the instinct to flinch and spit in his face. My fight turned him on, made him harder in places that filled my stomach with disgust.

No, I had learned a year before that it was always better to be pliant.

One of his hands, palm cooled probably from the ice that ran in his veins instead of blood, brushed up my throat, stalling on my pulse before cupping my cheek.

“We will marry on February fourteenth. The plans are already in motion.” He raked his eyes down my body, leaving me desperate for a shower and a wool coat. “The day to celebrate love is the perfect day to begin our love story. Don’t you agree?”

Not a love story—a nightmare. Still, I knew how to behave, how to play the part.

All I saw in his lecherous gaze was evil. If Daniel had ever had a soul, he’d sold it long ago.

“Sure, Daniel.” I said it with all the venom coursing through my body. I’d find a way out of this, but it wouldn’t be today. I had six weeks, but if I wanted that time to plan without suspicion, I had to be agreeable.

“Good. Then let’s finalize the details.” Matthew clapped his hands then slapped my dad on the back, turning them back to where files lay open on my dad’s desk.

I stayed silent, dismissed as soon as I agreed, although I knew they didn’t need it.

They were already making plans.

This was a foregone conclusion.

A fire I thought I’d long since quenched rose up from my gut and spread through my veins, making the roots of my hair feel like they were burning.

I would acquiesce on this day to this agreement, but it was the last time I’d do so.

Because I would marry Daniel Johanssen over my dead body.

1

Adrianna

There’s still time.

You know where we are.

Please come.

My friend Jillian’slast text had come in only ten minutes earlier, and I’d been staring at it ever since, debating…waffling. My sweaty palms gripped the phone tightly in both hands so it didn’t slip right through all the dampness. I could do this. I couldleaveand go where no one could easily find me.

I blinked in the mirror. My green eyes were bright as the grass outside and crystal clear. They weren’t cloudy. They didn’t show the emotion of the loss. They didn’t show what they were supposed to, either. There was no happiness or joy. No bright-eyed hope.

If there was anything at all in them, it was fear.

With my French-manicured thumbs trembling, I scrolled back through our texts.

It’d been months since I spoke to Jillian before she’d come to Charleston the previous summer for her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. At the time, I’d been hurt she’d avoided all of us just because her ex turned out to be a major douche and cheated on her with a mutual friend of ours, who he ended up marrying. That mutual friend, from what I’d heard, was absolutely miserable. Served them right, I figured. Unless I was forced to be social, I didn’t keep in touch with anyone from my former circle. Jillian was the only person who had ever beenrealanyway. We’d kept in touch since the wedding, frequently enough that the night I called her crying when I got engaged, she cursed like a sailor, screamed at her own fiancé, and then downed a bottle of wine with me via FaceTime.

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