Page 26 of Wicked Vows
The whispers return, driving me to the brink of insanity.I dump the dress on the floor and grab clean underwear.I pull them up my legs and move no further.
The whispers grow louder, sounding almost as if they are as angry as I am.
“Stop it,” I demand.I’m shivering in my underwear trying to be brave, trying to convince myself everything is fine.This is what I agreed to.I married a man who may have murdered his first wife.“You’re being childish,” I say to myself, wrapping my arms around my body as though they can shield me from this heartbreak.Nico never promised to love me or like me.He swore only to protect me.
I stare at the ceiling, and it stares back.Silent and judging.All knowing.
I swipe away my tears.
Nico cares about me.He just doesn’t know how to show it.That’s all this is.A misunderstanding.
He won’t leave me here, not like this.Not when he’s wanted me all along.I’m his.His possession, his wife.He won’t keep me waiting for long.
But I wait.
And wait.
Every second, every minute is a confirmation of the worst things I’ve ever told myself.That I’m just a piece in a game I don’t know how to play.That he’s done with me.I blink back tears, but they’re unrelenting.There’s nothing in me to stop them.I’m too tired, too drained.Too ruined by how much I wanted this, how much I thought he wanted me in return.
A noise startles me, quick and light against my bedroom door.A promise?An apology?The muffled sound of footsteps?It makes my heart leap.It fills me with too much hope, too fast, and it takes a moment for the tears to follow the disappointment when I realize they’re walking away from me, when I realize that it’s not him, not the man I thought I knew, not the man I wanted to know.
When I realize that he’s never coming, I fall onto the bed, hoping that tomorrow doesn’t come.
Chapter Ten
Morningcomesfartoosoon.Nico never came, and now I don’t want him to.If breaking my heart is what he wanted, then he’s won.
Marco warned me about him, and yet Nico made me think he’s the bad guy here.How could I have had it all so wrong?
I get in the shower, turning the water on so hot it scalds my skin.How do I face him after this?How will I ever look him in the eye knowing I gave all of myself to a man who doesn’t want me?I scrub and scrub at my skin, trying to wash away all traces of him, and yet the more I scrub, the more I feel him.The more I crave him.
I hate myself for loving him.
I hate him for making me fall so fast.
My father really sold me to a monster.Just not the kind I believed him to be.
I stay under the spray of water until it turns cold.Only when my teeth chatter and lips turn purple, do I shut it off and wrap a towel around my body.I go through the motions getting ready to face the day.What I really want is to hide away in this room and never leave.I can’t do that, though.Tonight is the Halloween party, Nico’s annual masquerade ball.I still have a duty as his wife.A promise to be fulfilled to my family.A deal is a deal, and if I’m lucky, I’m already pregnant since he came inside me multiple times without protection, and I’ll never have to lie with him again.
I was so stupid.I fell all too easily for his games and lies.His manipulation.Maybe the whispers, the ghosts were trying to warn me.To save me from sharing in Catherine’s fate.
Now I know.
To protect my heart.Nico may use my body, but he’ll never have my love nor my warmth.
I’m dead to him.
He may as well murder me too.
It’d have to be better than feeling this way.
I avoid going down for breakfast, and if my husband notices my absence, he doesn’t seem to care.I don’t see him around when I go down for lunch in the kitchen.The house is a flurry of activity.Caterers, servers, maids I’ve never met before all hustle and bustle to prepare for the big night.Even Ms.Bentley is moving faster than usual.
She barely glances at me when she says, “Your costume has been taken up to your room.”
I don’t even know what I’m wearing.But that doesn’t matter because I’m soon called to the front entrance for a surprise.My sister and Frankie are here.
Has it really been less than two weeks since I last saw her, and yet her stomach is so round?
