“Stay put.” I pushed him further into the room.
“Where are you going? Nikolai, we need to talk.”
“I know. I’ll be back for you later. And don’t even think you can weasel your way out of this one. I want answers, Finch.” I slammed the door after exiting. There wasn’t a way to lock him in, so as my only option, I asked reception to call me if they heard from him or saw him leave.
Aside from that, there wasn’t much for me to do except vow that I’d track him down and kick his ass all the way back to Boston if he tried to run away again.
It was almost dusk when I entered the hallway from my bedroom in the Varela household. I wanted a glass of water before I went down to dinner, so I headed down the hall. As I approached Kaleb’s office, I saw that the light was still on and the glass door was ajar. Then, quietly, voices began to filter out towards me.
“Do you really think she’s ready?” Kaleb asked, to which a feminine hum of consideration followed.
“I do… I think if we organised the wedding, she would work with us. She seems dedicated to make this work. Why? What are you thinking?”
My heart skipped a beat. A wedding? Clearly they were talking about me and Marco, but was she being serious? Did they really expect me to marry this guy so soon? And for it to go off without a hitch on my end? Not a chance…
There was a long pause, where the only audible sound was my own breath. “We need this alliance,” Rachel pressed.
“The Bellucci’s could wipe us out without a second thought, I feel nervous about keeping them waiting. The sooner she’s married into them, the sooner our assets are merged. You know this, Kaleb.” I was surprised at Rachel’s insistence on this. I had thought, out of either of them, that it’d be Kaleb pushing for the marriage.
A sour taste built in my mouth at the thought of truly being forced to marry Marco. It seemed so unbelievable that I’d barely considered it as a real option. I’d just figured if I couldn’t get myself out of the situation fast enough, that Nikolai would come true on his bargain. He would always be my knight in shining armor, ready to swoop in and save me whenever I needed him.
I suppressed a sigh of longing. Nikolai. The other night with him had been out of this world, and I’d definitely used the memory in my personal time, but it wasn’t enough. I needed to go back to him.
“It’s not about if she’s ready to be married off,” Kaleb began again suddenly. “It’s about if she’s ready to be trusted. She came back to us out of the blue. She has ties, however tenuous, to that King family in Boston. What if she’s been lying to us this entire time? Using us for her own gain? Or worse, for their own gain?”
That time I couldn’t hold back my gasp of surprise. My hand covered my mouth as I pushed myself further into the shadows. I’d had no idea Kaleb had been so suspicious of me… this whole time.
“What does she stand to gain but a husband who has wealth of his own?” Rachel countered. “She was taken from us, yes, but she came back to us with nothing. Kaleb, she’s still our daughter.”
Hmph. That’s what she thinks…
“You’re right. I still don’t know if I trust her, but we need this deal, just like we needed it all those years ago. Maybe with some more time…” Kaleb relented, with the resignation of a man who had had this particular conversation a number of times. “Have you contacted the wedding planner, yet?”
As Rachel made a sound of agreement, I decided I wasn’t so thirsty after all. If nothing else, I could wait until dinner tonight. I made my way back to my room, internally seething.
How could this be happening? After everything, I’d been through, why was this happening? I felt like I just really couldn’t catch a break.
They were questioning me, unsure if I was ready. And from the sounds for it, my loyalties as well. Their conversation struck me so hard because once again it just resonated that, at the end of the day, they just wanted to use me for their personal gain. I’d thought we’d been bonding, that we’d started forming a connection. Maybe that was just me growing weak, letting my guard down.
Well… fine! Fuck it.
They had their agenda and I had mine. I had to remember that, keep it fresh in my mind.
I knew I needed to act fast, but how? What could I do when all I had was a letter from nearly twenty years ago and some matching handwriting? I needed a plan.
Everything I’d gone through, these past few weeks had been a flurry of anxiety and regret. Countless times a day I had found myself going over my decision to seek the Varelas out…and then, to risk coming here. I always ended up at the same conclusion; what the fuck had I been thinking? But this was even worse than my uncertainty.
I needed to find a way to stall them for time.
Then I had to remind myself that I was there for a reason, a true purpose. I needed answers, but the more time I spent there the more I had started to think that maybe it was a wasted trip. I feared I wouldn’t like the domino effect my questions would bring, so I had been impatiently biding my time until I could make my subtle escape.
But to hear
