When I first married Sebastien, prepared to keep him at a distance, determined to do whatever it took to refrain from falling for him, I would’ve refused. I didn’t want his gifts. I stubbornly ignored any clue that he might’ve had his own motives for agreeing so easily to my ‘marriage of convenience’ idea.
I blamed it on sex, on how I tried to use him to forget Eric only to realize that Seabstien Reynolds is unforgettable. I blamed it on some need of his to play hero to a woman in trouble. I blamed it on anything and everything except the very clear reality that I was drawn to him, he was drawn to me, and in the almost year since I spotted him alone in the Last Prayer, I’ve understood that he’s the only one for me.
Eric tried to mold me into the perfect mistress. He thought that that was all I was good for. The perfect make-up, the perfect hair, the perfect outfits… he turned Annaliese Crawford into his private plaything. For too long, I let him, and by the time I met Sebastien that first time, I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
I have him to thank for helping me regain my sense of self. Sometimes I want to wear sundresses. Sometimes I’ll trade them for a t-shirt and cut-offs. Maybe one day I’ll twist my hair up in a chignon. Another, I’ll throw my hair into a messy bun, sticking a pencil in it so that it’s within reach while I’m planning another event.
He encourages me to work while also reminding me that, if I don’t want to, I don’t have to. He has more than enough money to support us both, but like how I did everything I could to turn Reynolds’ Garage into a reality, my husband is my biggest cheerleader when it comes to building up my own business.
I’m the premier event planner in Harmony Heights these days. The title used to belong to Mom, but with both of her daughters either engaged or married into the Order, her and Dad have taken a step back from the secret society.
I asked Sebastien if he wanted to do the same. As my husband is fond of saying, Fuck the Order. With Eric dead and Miranda Claimed, I’d be happy to never have anything to do with the Order of the Owed ever again.
But Sebastien… as long as his closest friends are running the show, he’ll be involved. I get that. His loyalty to them is one of the things that made me realize that there’s so much more to him than his pretty face, charming yet cocky attitude, and the dark side he can’t quite hide.
If he loves you, you’re golden.
If you cross him, you’re dead.
If you marry him, you better be prepared for forever because that’s all he can offer—and I’m the luckiest woman in Harmony Heights because he chose to marryme.
I wear the remains of the contract I once drafted in the pendant hanging off the chain he placed around my neck. Even if either of us was still trying to follow any of its points, there’s only one that Sebastien cares about: the termination of the year term to our marriage of convenience.
This agreement does not constitute a lifelong marital expectation unless mutually renegotiated…
If you ask my husband, we ‘mutually renegotiated’ our marriage the night up in the mountains, when he told me heloved me, when he gave me that necklace, and when he fucked me up against a tree after chasing me for the first time.
Yes. Thefirsttime. I unlocked a kink in my husband even Sebastien didn’t know he had, and I realized that running from Sebastien, knowing that he’ll forever chase me… it does it for me, too.
He knew we were made for more than a year. Me? When the first thing he said after discovering that I’d stabbed Eric to death was to tell me to wash my hands while he went and grabbed a shovel—after he made sure that I was okay—I knew that I’d be a fool to ever let him go.
So I haven’t. I won’t. And if he wants to give me a gift, I’ll thank him the best way I know how: by trading my sandals for running shoes and begging for a five-minute head start before I take off into the woods behind our house.
That’ll be later, though. For now? I walk with Sebastien over to his Porsche. He positions me outside the passenger door, then goes around to his side. His jacket is pooled on the driver’s seat. After letting himself into the car, he grabs something from the inside of his jacket before closing the door.
I can’t see what it is. The reason for that is simple. When Sebastien joins me, his hand is fisted around a small black jewelry box.
He hands it to me. “For you.”
I take it. “What is it?”
“Open it, love.” Sebastien’s eyes sparkle, the same mischievous look I fell in love with twisting his features.
I do. Popping open the lid, I see a thin ring. The outside is gold, like the ring I’m currently wearing. The inner part shines like diamonds.
“It’s a ring.”
“Every Offering who gets given to an Owed wears the stock standard band. But my wife? She deserves a wedding band as unique as she is.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“It’s ashes.”
That’s how he had my pendant made. But wait?—
“How? I thought you used the ashes from the contracts to make my necklace.” They don’t look the same. There are small black specks that stand out on the pendant. In the light of the setting sun, the ring glimmers and gleams. “Are you sure this is part of the set?”
“It’s not those kind of ashes, love. The jeweler I commissioned to make the ring is a pro when it comes to cremation rings.”
