by Eva Ashwood
“Thank you.”
My chin quivered, and I looked away quickly, willing myself not to cry. Josephine was a strong woman, and I wanted to show her that I was strong too. But her sympathy—her empathy—had hit me right in the chest, and I was more touched by it than I wanted to admit.
Before I could say anything else, voices in the hall outside interrupted us, and Josephine and I both looked up. She saw the look on my face, and a smile tilted her lips.
“Come on.” She stood and inclined her head toward the door. “It sounds like your boys are ready for you.”
Six
After we left Nathaniel’s place, the boys drove me back to my car, and I reluctantly kissed them all goodbye before climbing inside. I was worried about Mom finding out that I hadn’t actually gone anywhere with the girls from Highland Park, so I figured it was better to play things safe and get home quickly.
On the drive back across Baltimore, as I watched the houses around me grow larger and more luxurious, I thought about what Josephine had said.
Resolve grew in my chest like a block of steel.
I would find a way to stop this.
The first and most obvious place was with the other half of this marriage equation—Barrett King himself. He hadn’t seemed particularly enthused about our planned wedding when I’d seen him at the engagement party, particularly not after my cold-as-ice reception of him.
Maybe he didn’t want this either. And if he didn’t, maybe I could recruit his help in talking our parents out of this. If both of us could present a united force, maybe Sebastian and my father would have to reconsider.
Normally, I made it a point to avoid Barrett at school, going out of my way to make sure our paths never crossed. But by Friday, I’d made up my mind.
I didn’t head toward the cafeteria during my lunch period like usual. Instead, I made my way to the second floor of the school, hoping to catch him as he came out of his fourth period class. I arrived just after the class had let out, forging my way through the press of students heading in the opposite direction to peer into the classroom.
But he wasn’t there.
Dammit. I must’ve been too slow.
I swiveled my head around, my gaze tracking over the people in the hallway. I caught a glimpse of a tall boy with dark hair disappearing into the library and perked up. He must be going to study. That was perfect. If I could catch him alone, it would be a lot easier to have this conversation.
After giving myself a few deep breaths to gather my thoughts, I walked toward the library and stepped inside. The large space was fairly empty since most people were at lunch, and I didn’t see Barrett at any of the tables or chairs set up in the main area. I poked around in the stacks for a minute, then headed toward the small study rooms in the back of the library, set up so students could focus with fewer distractions.
When I stepped inside the first one, I froze, my jaw dropping open.
I’d found Barrett.
But he wasn’t alone.
He had girl laid out over the large table in the middle of the room, her legs splayed wide as his hand moved beneath her skirt. His body was draped over hers, and he was sucking on her neck as she moaned and writhed beneath him.
For a second, I was too shocked to do more than stare at the sight in front of me, my mind struggling to comprehend what I was seeing.
Then a small noise fell from my lips, and the girl’s eyes flew open. She yelped at the sight of me and slapped Barrett’s back, drawing his attention away from her neck. He glanced up, and when his gaze followed her and landed on me, I could see his entire posture shift.
He stiffened, then dragged his hand out from beneath the girl’s skirt, rising to stand straight as he did. He jerked his chin at her without saying a word, and she sat up and scooted off the table. Then she shot me an annoyed glare and left the room.
I blinked, staring dumbly at Barrett as he adjusted his blazer and crossed his arms over his chest, gazing back at me with a bland look on his face. When I didn’t speak for a few more moments, he rolled his eyes.
“Do you need something, Cora? I presumed you did, or I wouldn’t have sent Linsey away.”
His tone was casual and languid, almost mocking, and it jerked me out of my stupor.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, my voice low and tight.
He cocked a brow at me. “Well, besides the fact that I think the answer to that is perfectly obvious, I don’t feel I need to explain myself to you.”
“But—” I sputtered, shock still resonating through me. “You were—”
“Yes, I’m well aware of what I was doing.” The annoyance in his expression grew. “Do you have a point? Come on, Cora, it’s not like I don’t know you have someone on the side too.”
I blinked. After my mom’s infidelity over the past couple months, I’d had a knee-jerk reaction to the sight of Barrett kissing some girl in the library. But he was right, in a way. Except I had three someones, and they weren’t “on the side” of anything, because I had never even dated Barrett. I had never wanted to be with him.
And if his hand up that girl’s skirt was any indication, he had no interest in being with me either.
Maybe it’s a good thing I found him like this.
Ignoring his open taunt about me seeing someone else, I licked my lips and stepped forward, my heart slamming against my ribs as hope welled in my chest. “So… you don’t want this either? You don’t want to get married?”
“What?” He pulled a face, looking at me like I was crazy.
“Well, you’re not in love with me. I’m not in love with you. We want other people. So does that mean you don’t want to get married either?”
He still looked utterly baffled, and the annoyance was starting to creep into his expression again.
“What on earth does this have to do with the wedding?” he asked, gesturing around the small room as if to encompass everything that’d happened between him and Linsey in here.
“It has everything to do with the wedding,” I blurted, my voice growing in pitch and volume. I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.
“No, Cora. I think you’ve misunderstood this situation completely.” He smirked, and there was a cruel edge to it that made my jaw clench. “Or did your father not explain to you fully that this is a marriage of convenience? As in, it would be convenient for our families to join their empires. That has nothing to do with who I choose to hook up with. I’m not interested in fidelity, you should know that right now.” His gaze traced lightly up and down my body, and a mocking smile curved his lips. “Although we’ll obviously be expected to produce an heir. That can be managed.”
My stomach clenched so hard it felt like it was a black hole collapsing in on itself. I wrapped my arms around myself, unconsciously trying to block out his stare, to shield myself in some way.
“So you… you want to be married in name only? You don’t care about me, but you want to go through with this?”
He shook his head, his brows furrowing as he took a step closer to me. “You seem so shocked by this concept, Cora. I’m a little surprised. Your time in the gutter must’ve really fucked with your head. Of course that’s what I want. My family stands to gain a great deal from this marriage, and it’s my duty to do what’s best for the King line. You know who has the luxury of marrying based only on their feelings?” He twisted the word mockingly. “People who have nothing. Because they have nothing to lose.”
His callous words and his languid attitude made me want to punch him, and my already bruised hand closed into a fist.
How could he want this? How could he see so clearly into our future, know exactly what this forced marriage would become, and still want it?
I didn’t know.
But the one thing I was certain of was that Barrett King would never be my ally.
I opened my mouth, unsure of what to say, and finally realized there was nothing to say. Everything that needed to be said had been spoke
n already, and there was no point in wasting another fucking word on this boy. So I snapped my jaw shut and turned away.
He let out an annoyed huff as I stalked out of the room, and I had a sneaking suspicion he was pissed because he’d sent away his booty call just so we could have that short, pointless conversation.
A haze of anger filled my mind the rest of the day, and I went even farther out of my way than usual to avoid Barrett, certain that if I saw him again right now, I would lose my battle for self-control and end up punching his smug, smarmy face.
He wasn’t the person I needed to talk to anyway.
Given what I’d just learned, given what I now knew, I needed to speak to my father.
I drove straight home as soon as classes let out and found Dad in his office. He’d always split his time between his home office and one in the business district of Baltimore, but he’d been working from home more since his release from prison. I assumed that would last until he felt like he’d fully recovered his standing among his peers, when he could lord his wealth and accomplishments over them again like he had for so long.
“Cora.” He glanced up as I rapped on the door and pushed it open at the same time. He had left it ajar, his signal that it was okay to interrupt him if necessary.
And at the moment, it was very fucking necessary.
My heart thudded out an uneven rhythm in my chest as I crossed the room toward his desk.
“Barrett is cheating on me.”
The atmosphere in the room seemed to shift with my words, and my father looked up from the papers he’d been going over, his eyes narrowing. “What?”
“I found him in a room in the library today with his hand up some girl’s skirt.”
My voice shook just a little as I spoke. This was way outside the kinds of things my father and I usually talked about, but he had to know. He was aware Mom had cheated on him, and he obviously wasn’t as cavalier about it as Barrett had seemed to be about the idea of fidelity. So maybe, just maybe, hearing this would change his mind.
For a split second, I thought I had been right. His features hardened slightly, and his lips pressed into a thin line.
But then he shook his head, seeming to banish the tension that’d been gathering in his body. “This is hardly an appropriate conversation for a girl to have with her father, Cordelia.”
I crossed my arms. “It is when the father is trying to force the girl to marry someone she doesn’t love. Someone who straight-out promised her he would cheat on her.”
“This is not my business. It’s for you and Barrett to work out between yourselves. What happens between a husband and wife is no one’s concern but theirs, and you will be his wife very soon.”
“But, Dad—” I blurted, taking another step toward him as disbelief and anger burst inside my chest.
“Cordelia!”
His voice was like a whip, and I swore I could feel the sting of it across my skin. I froze, and my father rose from his chair slowly, planting his palms on his desk as his gaze bored into me.
“Do you think I’m not aware?” he asked, his voice low and hard. “Do you think I don’t know what goes on under my own roof? That I don’t know about your little guests in the pool house? There are surveillance systems in this house, Cordelia.”
My blood seemed to freeze in my veins.
Fuck. Fuck, no.
I’d known there were security cameras placed around the property, both inside and outside the house. It was why I had been worried about the Lost Boys getting caught when they’d broken in. But all four of us had been too caught up in each other to be smart or rational, and all of us had overlooked the possibility that our actions in the pool house might be recorded.
By my father.
My stomach turned over, sending acid rushing up my throat. “Dad—I didn’t—”
“I don’t need an explanation,” he said coolly, his gaze skating over my face as if he couldn’t quite bear to look at me. “I erased the footage after what little I saw so that no one else could ever get their hands on it, since I refuse to let my daughter’s indiscretions be used as blackmail against her. But you clearly think of yourself as an adult now, so from here on out, I will treat you as one. That means no more coddling. No more softening unpleasant realities of life to make them more palatable for you. You don’t always get what you want, and it’s high time you learned that.”
His face remained carefully impassive, but I could hear rage simmering in his voice.
Shame tried to rise up in me, but it was overwhelmed by my anger and helplessness as I listened to my father’s words. He didn’t care if I cheated on Barrett, or if Barrett cheated on me. He didn’t care that he was setting me up for a lifetime of unhappiness in a loveless marriage. He had made his decision, and he would stand by it like a stone sentinel no matter what.
“You’re dismissed,” he said, settling back into his chair and picking up the papers he’d set down as if we hadn’t just had this conversation.
I gazed at him in shock for a moment, then forced my body into motion and turned to leave.
Just as I reached the door, his voice came from behind me again.
“Oh, and Cordelia? I didn’t need your help to get out of prison. Things were well in hand before your meddling.”
Seven
He should still be in prison.
My feet felt like lead as I walked away from my father’s office, and that singular thought wouldn’t leave my head. It burrowed into my mind like a tick, like a parasite, refusing to leave.
He should still be in prison.
I had spent weeks agonizing over the question of whether or not my father was guilty. Not just of the crimes for which he’d been arrested, but of being cruel and callous in business. He had openly admitted to making choices that had ruined the lives of people like Bishop’s parents, but back when he’d been stuck behind bars—back when he’d still needed my help, as much as he might deny it now—he had promised me that he wanted to do better.
I could see that now for the lie it was, and it hurt my soul to know that I was seeing my father clearly for the first time.
With no artifice.
With none of his charm covering up his calculating nature.
I was seeing just how far he would go to get what he wanted. He’d always been willing to hurt strangers as he built his business empire, willing to sacrifice their happiness for his own. For his family’s benefit.
And maybe he was convincing himself that this marriage arrangement was for all of us, that it was truly best for our whole family. But more and more, I believed that he was doing it only for himself.
He should still be in prison.
The thought made me sick. Josephine had been right when she’d acknowledged that nothing was ever simple or clear-cut when it came to family. Because even now, despite everything he’d done, there was a part of me who still hoped for redemption for my father. Who still held out a foolish belief that he might change, or that he might reveal he’d been a better person than I thought all along.
That there was a reason for all of this madness that actually made sense.
Tears blurred my vision as I made my way down the hall, heading for the door that led to the garage. My gut churned with horror at the idea of what my father had seen, that he knew about the Lost Boys. I’d been about to tell him about them when he had sprung the fact that I was engaged to Barrett on me, and ever since then, I’d been careful never to mention them.
Because my father was proving himself to be colder and more calculating than I had ever imagined possible. And if he knew how much those three boys meant to me, there was a very real possibility he would use it against me. That he would threaten them to gain my compliance.
I couldn’t let that happen.
My heart fluttered in my chest like a panicked bird as I slid into my Aston Martin and pulled out of the garage. I had a sudden urge to hit the road and keep driving, to go as far and as fast as I could before my parents realiz
ed I was gone.
It felt like a noose was slowly closing around my neck, and I had the strange and terrifying feeling as I drove down the wide streets of our neighborhood that I was about to be locked away in a tower, never to be seen by the world again.
I drove blindly at first, not even paying attention to where I was going. And by the time I shook off the worst of my haze and paid attention to my surroundings, I was already headed across town.
Digging into my purse, I pulled out my phone and called Bishop, my hand shaking as I brought it to my ear. It rang twice before he answered, and I could hear the worry in his voice as he spoke.
“Hey, Princess. You okay?”
“No.”
The single word burned my throat like glass, and I could practically feel the force of his concern through the phone.
“Where are you?”
I gave him the nearest cross street, and as soon as I finished, he spoke again.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“Then pull over. Stay where you are. I’m out on an errand for Nathaniel, but I’ll do it later. I’ll be there in five.”
I didn’t bother to protest. I knew nothing I said would compel him to put his work above me, and the honest truth was, I needed to see him. My soul craved it, and my wrecked heart begged for it.
After pulling over onto a quiet side street, I waited, counting down the minutes. It only took four for Bishop to arrive. His car screeched around the corner and pulled to a stop beside mine, and he jerked his head, gesturing for me to get in.
I was already moving, gathering up my purse and shoving my door open. The second I slid into the passenger seat of his beat-up convertible, he gunned the engine again and took off down the street.
His entire body seemed tense, and I wasn’t quite sure where he was taking us, but now that I was in his presence, I really didn’t care where we went. He didn’t press me to talk, just reached over and threaded his fingers through mine. A few minutes later, we pulled up to a spot near the water in a quiet, abandoned part of the city.
