Page 54 of Malicious Marriage

“Clover makes me feel like I’m a real person. Do you know what that’s like? To have the world look at you for your power, your money and your threat? To exist as a Savoy and lose everything aboutmeunder the cloak of my family name? Cloverseesme and I can’t put a price on that. Is it so wrong of me to want to be seen?”

“No,” Don relents. “It’s not. But how much are you willing to sacrifice for that feeling?”

“Enough.” I don’t need to hear more. Don’s made his opinion clear and I know he’s trying to prepare me for what the rest of the organization thinks. Choosing Clover sets me up for a long drag of continuing to prove myself. “I want to focus on things that are in front of me, not a bunch of maybes.”

“Understood.”

“That man who appeared at the gala, Clover’s ex. Have you tracked him down? I want him taken care of before the wedding.” He put his hands on Clover and that’s all I need to make sure he never touches anyone ever again.

“We have him located. It’s never hard to track down a loan shark.”

“Wait… he’s a loan shark?” Clover never mentioned that.

Don nods. “Yes. But don’t worry. He won’t be an issue for much longer.”

24

CLOVER

Trisha’s baby isn’t Dean’s.

I’ve been sitting on this information for two whole days, with no idea what I’m supposed to do about it. Do I tell him? Is it even my place? Will it fuck up my own plans for rescuing my sister?

Does it even matter?

It feels like the kind of thing that’s far too big to keep to myself, especially when Bobby called Conor the next day after he sobered up to confirm what he drunkenly admitted. I didn’t want to stew over something we might have misinterpreted during Conor’s drunken rambles, but even sober, he admitted it. In his words, he’d been sleeping with Trisha regularly until she fell pregnant and that’s when she dumped him and went back to Dean.

Makes sense. She’s surely under the same kind of familial and societal pressure as Dean and saw her opportunity to have her baby without shame, and trap Dean at the same time. Surely, it’s my place to tell him otherwise?—

“Ahh!” My thoughts derail as shampoo leaks down my forehead and turns my eye into a ball of fire. I turn under thewater and angle my face into the spray of the shower, trying to wash it out while every muscle of my face contracts in agony. “Fucking hell! Ow, ow, ow, ow!”

Within a few minutes, the shampoo washes out of my eye and my vision clears despite the heat radiating from my lid. Another few rubs of my knuckle and my tears mingle with the spray washing over my face.

Fuck. I’m distracted. This is tearing me up because any sort of news like this risks uprooting all my current plans and I’ve onlyjustgot Dean to agree to marry me before the end of May. He’s made his feelings clear on Trisha, but each time he’s spoken about the baby, he’s been excited. It’s something he’s looking forward to. Can I really take that away from him without proof?

By the time I finish my shower, I’ve made my decision. It’s too cruel to keep this from him and regardless of how truthful it is, he deserves to know that this is even circulating. There’s no telling how many other people Conor might have already told while drunk.

I dress in jeans and a shirt then head through to where Bobby’s been hanging out, but instead of being busy reading or going over a few wedding things he’d asked to be in charge of, he’s fast asleep spread out over the couch. Waking him feels wrong. I can only imagine how exhausted he must be from running after me all the time on top of caring for his husband and his son.

There’s no need to wake him for this.

Grabbing the car keys, I head out of the house and send Bobby a quick text explaining where I’m going so he doesn’t wake up in a fright, then I drive out toward the city. I’m only a few miles from him when Bobby immediately calls.

“Hello?”

“Clover! What the hell?”

“What do you mean what the hell?”

“You left?”

“Yeah, I texted you and told you.”

“That’s why I’m calling! Why didn’t you wake me up if you wanted to go somewhere?”

“Well, firstly, I’m an adult and I’m capable of traveling by myself.” I chuckle as I pull around a corner. “And second, you were fast asleep and you looked exhausted so no, I wasn’t going to wake you up.”

“Clover, you can’t travel by yourself.”