Page 12
Story: Bloody Wedding
I don’t wantto do this.
I don’t want to do this.
I really,reallydon’t want to do this…
But it’s happening.
The last few days have been a blur. I’m still staying at my father’s house—the back of my skull pulses in a headache whenever I think I’ll be passed off, given away, and living with myhusbandafter the wedding—but whether he has his regrets or he’s waiting for a temper tantrum, he’s kept his distance. I think the man has left his study maybe five times total in the last fourteen days, and one of them was to ride in the limo with me to St. Catherine’s so he couldliterallygive me away.
I tried to tell him about my meeting with Desmond, but his last sneers—the reminder that I lost any credibility I had when I was seventeen—has me staying quiet. Instead, I piled on the makeup, hiding the red mark on my pale skin until it had faded.Luckily, the marks of his fingers on my wrist didn’t bruise. No one knows that he attacked me, and I’m going to keep it that way.
He thinks I’ll go meekly. I don’t want to do this, but I will, and I already have a plan in mind.
I’m an Offering. Even though Jack Collins revoked that title a decade ago, he obviously gave it back if I’m going through with this today. As an Offering, I have protections that other women in the Order don’t.
Simply put, if he lays his hands on me again once we’re married, I can petition the King for an end to our marriage. And since we don’t do divorce, there’s only one way to save an Offering from an abuser who hurts his wife instead of taking care of her: excommunication from the order.
All it will take is Desmond hitting me one more time, leaving a visible mark, and he’ll be dead. I’ll be free.
Does that mean there aren’t abusers in the Order? Of course not. Many of the men just know how to hit without leaving proof. Others keep their abuse emotional or financial rather than physical. And then there are the women who tolerate it because they don’t want to be the reason their husbands die.
I won’t let my Dad be excommunicated or executed. But Desmond?
I’ll turn on him with a smile.
Thinking of my short marriage is the only reason I can find to smile at all today.
I’m wearing a six thousand-dollar wedding dress, all lace and ruffles and hand-sewn beading, but it feels like a prison-orange jumpsuit. Desmond is standing in front of the altar, unable to hide his smirk that I just walked down the aisle to him. Father Francis is prepared to start the ceremony as the echoes of the final chords to the wedding march die out.
This is it. It’s happening. I’m about to get married to Desmond St. James?—
—or am I?
Out of the corner of my eye, the doors at the back of the church push open. A man in a suit stalks in, a last-minute guest I’m assuming, but instead of grabbing a seat in one of the last pews, he starts down the same path I took with Dad mere moments ago.
He clears his throat, wordlessly calling for attention.
I swivel my head, looking at him, and nearly faint on the spot.
It’s him.
It’s Adrian.
And he’s holding a gun.
THREE
RIGHT ON TIME
ADRIAN
He doesn’t know it yet, but Desmond St. James is going to die.
Not right away. That would be sloppy. And I pride myself on not being sloppy.
Besides, I have every right to take matters into my own hands, and I plan on it. For the Order’s sake, though, I figured I ought to be discreet. Isn’t that what’s expected of the Owed? Hide in the shadows, play puppet master, watch the rest of Harmony Heights dance when we pull their strings.
So I hired an assassin. The Hummingbird came highly recommended, and I reached out to her almost immediately after Dallas let me know that Desmond decided after all this time that he would Claim Loni.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12 (Reading here)
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104