Page 40 of Unwritten Vows

Liza

I watch anxiously as the newscaster on the local news channel finally gets to Derrick on the back of the EMS truck to interview him.

Daddy couldn’t hide that something was going on with him—that some news came out around him and this strip club he’s sitting outside of—and now all I know is that his father is dead and he’s been beaten up.

But somehow, he’s being fawned over instead of taken into custody.

He gives some story about his father being killed in the shootout, the details of which are suspiciously lacking, and most definitely flirts with the newscaster to get her to stop her line of questioning.

It works the way he wants it to with her, and it also works to nauseate me even further than I already am.

Somehow, the interview gets wrapped up and I’m left wondering what the hell he’s about to do now.

Where will he go? There’s no way my father will let him live after what he’s done.

I hide in my room to cry for hours. My entire world feels like it’s falling apart. I know I’ll live, but right now it feels like my chest is cracking open. I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been. I can’t imagine ever trusting a man again.

And then, hours later, there’s a knock on my door. It’s the chef, likely up here to ask if I want some dinner, since I surely missed it tonight. But there’s no way I could eat.

“It’s okay, I really don’t—” I begin, but he interrupts a moment later.

“No, Miss, I thought you might want to know, I saw him out the window… I’m just afraid your father will actually kill him and there will be a murder in your driveway. There are no more plates to break.”

“What are you…” The chef points to the window and my eyes widen as I look out. Derrick stumbles up the driveway of the estate, half crouched over. This is really bad. This is really, really, really bad .

I run down the stairs and out the front door in a panic. I see the guards getting restless, looking at Derrick sideways, but unsure if they should do anything. After all, we are still technically engaged.

I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “Derrick, are you okay? You look so much worse than you did on TV!”

He touches a welt above his temple. “I know. It’s swelled up a little, but I’m fine.”

Finally, I remember that my father is definitely going to kill him if he catches him. “You can’t be here right now!”

“What?” His voice is wobbly and he stumbles to the side.

“My father is pissed . Your father told him that you were about to announce your engagement to Edoardo’s daughter if we didn’t come up with an offer of property for him!

” I speak in a frantic voice just above a whisper, waiting for my father’s booming voice, begging whoever’s listening to just give me a few more minutes to talk some sense into Derrick and get him the hell off this property.

Derrick looks confused as all hell. “Edoardo’s… I told him no. He didn’t even tell me he was calling your father. That fucker.” His words are slightly slurred, and he stumbles again, right into a tree.

Now I’m even more concerned, for multiple reasons. “Are you okay? You look terrible. Did you have a physician examine you?”

He bats the suggestion away with a shake of his head. “No time for that. I had to explain it all as quickly as possible. I had to see you.”

“Well, you’re going to need to explain quicker if you don’t want Daddy to string you up to that tree by your ankles.”

“I’ll tell him whatever he wants to know. He’ll have to believe me because… because I haven’t told anyone except Cas and Mara.”

My face screws up in confusion. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.” I think for a moment. “Mara? Are you talking about Mara Whitney? What does she have to do with this?”

He pinches the top of his sinus above his nose and closes his eyes.

“I’ve told so many different versions of this story today that they’re all starting to get jumbled in my head.

But I thought of you. You’re the reason I saved her.

” Suddenly, he stumbles forward and into me.

He grabs me and crushes me into him. I want to push him away to get him to safety, but I’ve been wanting to feel his body against mine all day. “You’re the reason I killed him.”

I gasp at his last sentence. “Killed him? Not… not your…”

“My father. I killed him for you.”

I let out a shaky sigh. Now I’m uncertain whether he’s even coherent enough to be discussing anything.

I can’t figure out if this is a concussion talking, or if he really knows what he’s saying.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I think you should see a doctor.

” I try to push him away so I can see him better, but he just holds me tighter.

“I can’t let you go again. I don’t want anything to happen to us.”

I gulp. “Nothing is going to happen to us besides my father killing you.”

“No, Liza, you’re not listening to me.” He sways against me, then doubles over slightly while maintaining eye contact. I’m partially holding him up at this point. “I… I killed him because he tried to hurt you. And then he was going to help the man who tried to hurt you, too.”

“You killed him because he was helping Edoardo?”

His eyes are cloudy, but he nods. I finally get that what he’s saying is his version of what happened. And I believe it.

Just then, I hear it: Daddy’s booming voice coming from the doorway of the mansion.

“Derrick Stepinov! You dare to come to this house after what you’ve done to my daughter!”

I have to keep an arm around Derrick, because I can feel him sagging and I’m truly afraid he’ll fall, but I turn and hold my hand out in front of me in hopes of warding my father off. “Daddy, no! It wasn’t him!”

My father yells something about a taser, but I’m too concerned when Derrick begins to fall and I can’t hold his weight up anymore on my own.

“Should’ve probably had a doctor take a look,” he groans, just before falling to the asphalt.

All I can think to do is shield him from my father’s wrath as he melts into the ground.

“I’m not sorry I did it,” he says. “I’d do it a hundred more times for you, little Liza.” His eyes close just before the guards get to him.

“Don’t! He’s hurt!” I say when I see the taser. While the guard puts it back in its holster, I have a moment to stick my finger into Derrick’s neck frantically and feel his pulse before he’s taken away.

At least he’s alive. For now.

*******

“Is he okay?” I ask Daddy, perhaps a bit overzealously, when he comes out of the room where Derrick is supposedly alive and resting. But with the way he went in there when he heard Derrick was waking up, I’m not so sure. And with the way he boomed at me to stay out here, I’m truly nervous.

My father clearly doesn’t like the fervor lacing my tone. He gives me a grave look.

“You didn’t kill him, did you?” I ask, eyes wide.

He grunts angrily at me. “No, I did not kill him.”

“Ohhh, okay. Okay, good.” I can’t seem to catch my breath. “Daddy, I just want him… to be able to make it up to me.”

“He is alive, as of now. Only because of you, my Solnyshko . I haven’t made up my mind for how long.”

I nod, showing him that I understand, while gathering my courage to ask him my next question. At the last minute, I decide to test out phrasing it as a statement instead of a question. “I want to see him.”

“No,” Daddy says automatically, as if he knew I was going to ask. “I need him well enough to be interrogated. I need to make sure—”

“Well, I’m sure nothing I will do is going to hurt him more than he is already.”

“Don’t test me on this,” my father said with a growl, in the voice I know means the conversation is over. “If you continue to ask, you will never see him again.”

Tears of frustration fill my eyes, and my father’s face softens. “Wait, Eliza. Wait a few days.”