Page 37 of Unbound Boxset

“I’ll make the necessary arrangements.”

“What will I tell Bryce?”

He waved his hand in dismissal. “Bryce will be thrilled to hear I’m gone. Does he know about Dad’s will?”

Victoria shook her head. “Just us and the lawyers.”

“I won’t worry about him, then. Let him believe he’ll inherit the whole pie for a while. It’ll keep him happy.”

“Jack, why are you always so hard on your cousin?”

He paused, tempted to tell his mother about the rumors. Bryce Sinclair was a wonder boy in many ways—the perfect confidante and supporter for both the company and his family. Something was off with him, though. Always had been. Jack caught the glimmer of ruthlessness in his face when he thought no one was looking. He’d also seen Bryce in action. But there was no need to worry his mother further. “I’d better go. I’ll call when I get settled.”

He left his mother with her tea and strode out the door.

* * *

“Promise me….”

Julianna stared out at the churning waters and heard her father’s whisper through the harsh wind. She shivered at the first explosion of salty spray and wrapped her arms tighter around her body. Still, she didn’t move from the cliff’s edge. A storm brewed overhead and she longed to feel the icy cold against her skin. Numbness had been her constant companion over the past week. She needed to feel alive.

“You are my only daughter. You must promise to keep the family legacy alive.”

A cloud hovered and split open. The ground shook beneath her feet with the fierceness of a woman scorned, and she tilted her face upward as the rain poured down. Her hair lifted and whipped around like Medusa in all of her glory. Julianna gasped as the cold seeped through her bones and refired her blood, forced her heart to pump heavier for warmth, and the numbness burst wide open and let all the pain and hurt stream back.

“The Cliff House must be saved. You must marry someone with wealth. Someone who is worthy of you.”

She let out a long, animal wail as the grief took hold. The scene flashed in the sky overhead. Her father, slipping away painfully day by day, as she sat by his side. His weak voice, hoarse with anguish, as he begged her to fulfill the legacy. The promise wrested from her lips to save their family home. The final closure of his eyes, and the peaceful smile upon his lips as he sealed her fate.

Her promise would be her sentence.

Her home would be her prison.

Julianna had no one. No siblings. No parents. No cousins. The money was gone, swallowed in a drench of medical bills and mortgage payments. The life insurance would barely pay for taxes and upkeep for the month. She had no one to turn to. The banks and credit unions and friends had nothing left to give her.

She needed to marry. For money, not love. For the home she’d been trying to escape from her entire life.

The ocean roared its fury and the sky boomed back.

Her shoulders slumped. The emotions passed as quickly as they had taken hold. Julianna wasn’t surprised. She’d learned young that emotions had no place in real life. Not when people depended on her.

She turned from the cliff and walked back home. Her shoes sank into the muddy ground, and her dress hung heavy with wetness as she left the storm behind. The heat of the house pressed down upon her like an oppressive spirit.

Dreams of luxurious travel, hot affairs, and a shiny, open world lay behind her. She must do her duty and continue her family’s heritage. Along the way, perhaps the man who was destined to fulfill her promise would be a man she could love.

Julianna shut the door behind her. On the storm. On her grief.

On her future.