Page 22 of Wallflower Gone Wild

Before Letty could respond, her door opened again, both her parents walking in, dressed for dinner.

“You need to dress, Leticia, Meriweather sent a note, and he’s coming to speak to me,” her father said, walking into her room with her mother at his side “Your mother will begin making arrangements for the wedding. We’ll get a special license?—”

“No.” Letty’s voice was firm as she folded her arms across her chest. “I won’t be marrying Mr. Meriweather.”

“Have you gone mad?” her mother shouted, stepping closer to Letty. “You’ve been sneaking around with him for God knows how long and the moment that you’re discovered together, you decide that you don’t want to marry him?”

“I’m afraid you don’t have the luxury not to marry Meriweather.” Her father shook his head, suddenly looking old and fragile. “Oakfield is telling everyone who will listen that he caught you and Meriweather in the very act, and that he is the scorned fiancé?—”

“I never agreed to marry him or dance with him or anything!” Letty threw her hands in the air at the nerve of the baron.

She pointed to her mother. “This is all your fault for trying to push him on me.”

“Is it so wrong that I want you to have a husband with position and a title? So you won’t have to struggle like I did?” Her mother pressed her hands against her own chest.

“I’m starting to wonder if you really love father at all.” Letty let out a humorless laugh, staring at her mother’s wide eyes.

“Of course I love him! But I remember what it was like before I met your father, and I don’t want either of you to know such horrors.” Her mother wiped away her errant tears.

“Did you marry him for his title?” Letty asked, turning her back on her parents.

She’d had enough of their hypocrisy.

“Don’t you dare speak to your mother like that!” her father shouted at her retreating form.

Letty turned around facing him. She marched over to him, meeting his bright hazel eyes. “I’ll speak to both of you anyway I please! You with your conditional love and her insisting on an advantageous marriage,” she cried, unable to hide the pain of her father’s betrayal.

“I was only insisting on a match between you and Baron Oakfield because this world is not kind to women like us.” Her mother clutched at her heart.

Letty’s chest ached at the sight of her mother’s tears. She never fought with her parents, but she was tired of being amiable.

“I’d rather take my chances with the world than in this family,” Letty said storming away from her parents.

“We’ve always loved you and spoiled you and look what good that has done.” Her father shook his head, his shoulders slumped over in defeat.

“Your love comes with conditions, doesn’t it?” she asked, unable to stop her own tears. “As long as I’m the perfect daughter, amiable and without scandal, I can get anything I want, but the first time that I do anything not up to the great Earl of Pinerose’s standards, I’m disinherited. Replaced as if I were nothing. If that is your love, I don’t want it, Father.”

Her father stumbled back, his pale skin draining of all color. He looked like a ghost from one of the stories Cleo would tell her when they were children.

“That is not what I’m doing. I’m trying to protect you!” he shouted, slamming his fist in the hand of his palm.

“Protect me?” Letty tilted her head to the side, heart pounding in her chest. “Did you protect me from your heir? From yourself, who now deems me worthless and ruined?”

“What does Bertram have to do with this?” her mother demanded.

Letty’s mother was never a fan of her only stepson; his disdain for her and her daughters was apparent from the start.

“Yesterday, after you and the earl left the clearing, Bertram said that he arranged for Mr. Meriweather to ruin Letty so that he could receive Letty’s inheritance from the earl,” Cleo explained, playing with her fingertips.

“Is this true?’ her father asked.

“Yes, and that is why I will not marry Mac. If I am ruined, then so be it.” She held her head high, fighting against the despair trembling in her veins.

“Why did you not tell me?” Her father stepped toward her, taking her hand.

She pulled away, hating the pain in his gaze. “What does it matter? You chose to disinherit me, so I’m choosing to finally be true to myself.”

They all stood in silence for several moments, until there was a knock on the door.